Leading industrial real estate firm closed 9 million square feet of acquisitions since June 2024
MDH Partners today announces that it acquired over 9 million square feet of industrial properties in excess of $1 billion during the second half of 2024. This was accomplished by way of 10 individual transactions with deal sizes ranging from $10 million up to approximately $400 million.
These recent acquisitions span 30 buildings in 11 distinct markets, with the majority being in Atlanta (1.7 million square feet), Austin (1.4 million square feet), Chicago (2.2 million square feet), Dallas (1 million square feet), and Houston (1 million square feet). The remaining transactions were in Greenville, South Carolina; Central Pennsylvania; Orlando; Laredo, Texas; and Phoenix. In the aggregate, these properties had an average occupancy of 99% and 5+ years of weighted average lease term. These acquisitions also complement two speculative developments that MDH delivered in the fourth quarter of 2024 – in Austin, Texas and Charlotte, North Carolina – totaling 475,000 square feet.
“The latter half of 2024 was among the most active periods in our history, as we began the investment of our third fund since 2019 by adding high-quality assets with strong tenancy in many of our target markets,” said Jeff Small, CEO of MDH Partners. “In addition to our acquisition and development teams being busy, we also planted roots in California with the opening of our West Coast office in Santa Monica, supporting our focus in the region.”
Small continues, “Part of our success in getting traction on deals over the past six months has been the flexibility within our new $1.2 billion fund to target deals with different investment profiles. Much of our recent investments are Core+ opportunities, where we are buying well-leased properties with high-quality credit tenants under longer-term leases. With overall economic uncertainty persisting, coupled with constrained capital markets in which many of the traditional Core Funds faced redemption requests and thus were unable to make new investments, we saw the most attractive risk-adjusted returns in this Core+ space. As we enter 2025, we are continuing to monitor the absorption in our markets as they slowly chew through excess supply. We expect to split our focus this year between more traditional value-add deals and identifying land sites for future speculative development. And with boots on the ground now in Southern California, we will be making a concerted effort to grow our presence in those markets.”
While MDH made these acquisitions individually on a cash basis at the time of closing, they subsequently pooled these properties and closed two large loans at year-end as well. Working with JLL Miami Capital Markets and Eastdil Secured in two separate marketing efforts, MDH secured $616 million cumulative in loan proceeds to support the acquisitions. Wells Fargo was the lender on both closings.
MDH Partners is actively investing its Fund III, equating to $1.2 billion in equity and $3 billion in total buying power when including debt, after completing its investment of its $750 million Fund II earlier last year. In 2022, the firm recapitalized its Fund I portfolio, totaling 58 institutional-quality logistics properties spanning 9.7 million square feet in a $1.26 Billion sale to a sovereign wealth fund. MDH Partners currently owns and manages approximately 32 million square feet across 30 markets in 18 states.
About MDH Partners
MDH Partners is an Atlanta-based real estate investment company managing its discretionary funds targeting industrial real estate across the United States on behalf of its institutional investors. Founded in 2005 as the successor to a fifty-year-old local real estate development company, MDH Partners has led and/or participated in over $7 billion (92 million square feet) of acquisitions, developments, and asset management as an advisor and investor. For more information, visit www.mdhpartners.com.
