With the February acquisitions of three buildings in the Los Angeles market and a 600,000-square-foot facility in Houston, CenterPoint Properties has announced it has now made 27 new investments since the start of 2020. In the past 14 months, the industrial real estate investment, development and management firm has acquired 38 buildings totaling nearly seven million square feet and 456 acres in six of its core markets: New York/New Jersey, Los Angeles, Houston, South Florida, Oakland and Seattle.
Despite challenging global economic conditions over the past year, CenterPoint has ramped up its national investment strategy in port, intermodal and leading e-commerce markets. It has invested $1.3 billion over the past five quarters in some of the country’s most competitive infill markets. Over the past decade, CenterPoint has sought to diversify its portfolio outside of its home market of Chicago and concentrate resources on coastal port markets with high barriers to entry and large populations.
In early 2020, CenterPoint became one of the largest industrial landlords in the New York City boroughs by acquiring three last-mile facilities in Brooklyn. The 925,000-square-foot “Flatlands Portfolio” was one of two major portfolio deals made by CenterPoint’s East Coast Investments Team last year.
In December 2020, the company completed the second of a pair of acquisitions in Miami-Dade County, acquiring four buildings totaling 1.46 million square feet in the Countyline Corporate Park. South Florida investments accounted for more than 20% of the total CenterPoint has spent since Q1 ’20, highlighting its intention to remain as one of the most active investors in the highly competitive region.
The lion’s share of CenterPoint’s investments since the start of ’20 has been made along the west coast. The company’s 17 acquisitions in Southern California, Oakland and Seattle brought 25 buildings and more than 3.75 million square feet into its portfolio. In March ’20, CenterPoint closed on a massive 1.6 million-square-foot rail-served property in Ontario, CA, one of the largest distribution facilities for lease on the West Coast.
CenterPoint bolstered its Oakland portfolio by adding three prime port-proximate facilities in the East Bay submarket. It also remained aggressive in the Seattle market, making five acquisitions in Q4 ’20 alone between the Ports of Seattle and Tacoma.
