Manulife Investment Management Announces Industrial Outdoor Storage Venture with Foundry Commercial

BOSTON, June 27, 2024 /PRNewswire/ - Manulife Investment Management (Manulife IM) has announced a strategic partnership with Foundry Commercial to acquire, develop, and lease industrial outdoor storage (IOS) sites in key infill industrial markets throughout the Southeast.  The portfolio consists of  10 sites located in Atlanta, Nashville, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Jacksonville. Three of the sites have completed construction and were acquired by Manulife IM directly; the remaining will be developed in partnership with Foundry.

"Our investment in IOS is part of a larger alternatives strategy to invest in industrial and residential adjacent sectors with significant tailwinds. Partnering with Foundry was a logical choice given their extensive expertise as a top tier industrial developer and considerable knowledge in IOS," said Jessica Harrison, Head of Transactions & Capital Markets, Real Estate Equity, U.S., Manulife IM. "Today's market is undeniably challenging – we continue to source and structure interesting opportunities which seek to generate outsized risk adjusted returns on behalf of our clients, which we believe is a key differentiator of our real estate business."

"We are thrilled to form this new strategic partnership with Manulife IM. Together we seek to drive compelling investment performance for investors as early entrants into this growing and exciting alternative property type of IOS," said Pryse Elam, Foundry Commercial's Chief Investment Officer.

Manulife IM's real estate platform, with $19.2 billion in assets under management as of March 31, 2024, provides investment solutions globally as part of its comprehensive private market's capabilities. Its platform offers core, core-plus, value-add, and opportunistic strategies spanning over 84.6 million square feet of commercial real estate across the U.S., Canada, and Asia Pacific. The real estate investment team leverages its global platform, regional market knowledge, and deep relationships to identify opportunities that drive results for its clients.

"Expanding our real estate equity platform and our core plus strategy with exposure to high conviction sectors such as industrial outdoor storage and access to this well positioned portfolio with Foundry is a natural extension of our broader, global investment strategy. Niche strategies increasingly align with long-term structural shifts, evolving demand-side drivers, and institutional capital's appetite for diversification into rapidly institutionalizing alternative investments," said Maggie Coleman, Chief Investment Officer, Real Estate Equity, North America and Co-Head Portfolio Management, Manulife IM.

Headquartered in Orlando, Foundry Commercial is a full-service commercial real estate company with an integrated development and investments platform leveraging the insight of local knowledge, brokerage teams, property and construction managers.  Since 2014, Foundry has deployed over $4.4 billion across 30 million square feet of projects and currently has $2.7 billion in assets under management.

"Targeting IOS, which shares the same drivers as industrial with a fraction of the capital costs, we continue to see the benefits of our vertically integrated platform with leading local execution capabilities in today's environment by unlocking investment opportunities that are unavailable to the general marketplace," said Principal Rick Coe, who leads IOS investments for Foundry.

Additional information about Manulife Investment Management's real estate capabilities can be found at manulifeim.com/institutional.

Additional information about Foundry Commercial can be found at foundrycommercial.com. 

About Manulife Investment Management

Manulife Investment Management is the brand for the global wealth and asset management segment of Manulife Financial Corporation. Our mission is to make decisions easier and lives better by empowering investors for a better tomorrow. Serving more than 17 million individuals, institutions, and retirement plan members, we believe our global reach, complementary businesses, and the strength of our parent company position us to help investors capitalize on today's emerging global trends. We provide our clients access to public and private investment solutions across equities, fixed income, multi-asset, alternative, and sustainability-linked strategies, such as natural capital, to help them make more informed financial decisions and achieve their investment objectives. Not all offerings are available in all jurisdictions. For additional information, please visit manulifeim.com.

About Foundry Commercial

Foundry Commercial is a full-service commercial real estate services and investment company operating across the office, industrial, retail, multi-family, healthcare, religious, and not-for- profit asset classes and clients. Focused on the Sun Belt markets, Foundry is sustained by 2,900 associates operating from 12 markets, providing leasing and management on more that 68 million square feet and over 3,000 seniors housing units, typically executing over $2 billion in leasing, tenant rep, and investment sale transactions annually. Foundry's development and investment platform is fully integrated with its services business and is currently invested in over $4.4 billion in joint ventures with many of the best-known institutional investors in the country. For more information, visit www.foundrycommercial.com.

SOURCE Manulife Investment Management