Jed Degnan has been named a director of acquisitions at Oak Brook, Illinois-based Clear Height Properties as the company looks to expand its portfolio of industrial and office properties in the Chicago metropolitan area and across select Midwest markets.
Gary Rose, CHP’s COO/President, made the announcement.
“We believe there is great opportunity, in Chicago as well as Midwestern cities like Indianapolis, Columbus, Cincinnati, Nashville, St. Louis and Kansas City, to leverage the platform, relationships and track record that CHP has established to source attractive new investment opportunities for our investors and to bring additional scale to our operations,” Rose said. “The addition of Jed Degnan is a strategic commitment to continue to improve CHP by expanding our team’s expertise, relationships and reach in our target markets to fuel CHP’s growth in the coming years.”
With more than 20 years of experience in commercial real estate, Degnan’s role as a Director of Acquisitions is to identify, assess and evaluate opportunities to acquire properties according to the firm’s established acquisition criteria and, in the process, further relationships with the brokerage community. The ultimate goal is to expand the Clear Height portfolio of industrial and office buildings.
Degnan is well-suited for his position with CHP, based on a career that initially included positions in the brokerage community before spending approximately 18 years in acquisitions. Most recently he was Director of Acquisitions for Midwest Industrial Funds where he was responsible for identifying opportunistic “off-market” investment opportunities on behalf of two industrial real estate funds. He also was the point of first contact for all brokers in the Chicago industrial brokerage community.
Previously, for more than 10 years, he was a Vice President of Acquisitions for CenterPoint Properties. While there he performed similar functions—acquiring industrial property in Chicago and the East Coast for the company’s portfolio and working as a liaison with the brokerage community during the company’s expansion into new markets.
“Joining Clear Height is an opportunity to join a firm with an excellent reputation and flawless record for closing deals, something that is very important in the industry and especially in the brokerage community,” Degnan said. “It’s a rapidly moving marketplace and that requires swift action and follow through.”
He also highlighted an acquisition philosophy that is disciplined but at the same time entrepreneurial. “That allows us to look at things uniquely, with a different lens than larger institutional firms,” he said.
Clear Height’s current portfolio consists of industrial and office buildings totaling approximately 3 million square feet of space. Its portfolio is located primarily in the Chicago metropolitan area, as well as in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Based on the firm’s acquisition criteria, it will explore opportunities throughout the Midwest.
Rose says that Clear Height will be aggressive but selective, a course of action the firm has taken since its founding. In general, Clear Height primarily seeks infill, value-add and core plus industrial properties as well as sale leaseback properties. The firm’s acquisition strategy also includes well-located, value-add office properties.
