W. P. Carey Inc. (W. P. Carey, NYSE: WPC), a leading net lease REIT specializing in corporate sale-leasebacks, build-to-suits and the acquisition of single-tenant net lease properties, today announced investment volume for the 2024 full year of approximately $1.6 billion at a weighted-average initial cap rate of approximately 7.5% and an average yield of approximately 9%.
During 2024, the company remained primarily focused on acquiring high-quality, single-tenant warehouse and industrial properties, which comprised close to 60% of its full-year investment volume, with retail properties comprising approximately 30%. From a geographic perspective, approximately three-quarters of its 2024 investment volume was located in North America and one-quarter in Europe.
Record Fourth-Quarter Investment Volume
During the fourth quarter, the company completed record on-balance sheet investment volume for a quarter totaling approximately $845 million across a range of property types, including the following significant investments, each of which are on leases with built-in rent escalations:
- The approximately $200 million acquisition of four portfolios of discount retail stores, totaling 106 properties located in 21 states across the U.S., net leased to Dollar General, an investment-grade company. The properties are triple-net leased for a remaining weighted-average term of 14.3 years. As part of the transaction, W. P. Carey will acquire nine additional stores for an estimated $20 million during the first quarter of 2025.
- The approximately $100 million acquisition of a Class A industrial facility net leased to Canadian Solar, a global renewable energy company. The 1.1 million-square-foot facility is located in Shelbyville, KY and will serve as the tenant’s principal U.S. battery manufacturing facility. It is triple-net leased for a remaining term of 12.4 years.
- The approximately $100 million sale-leaseback of a five-building manufacturing and industrial campus totaling 1.1 million square feet located in Monterrey, Mexico, net leased to one of the oldest and largest privately held industrial manufacturing conglomerates in the U.S. The portfolio is under a master lease on a triple-net basis for a term of 25 years with rent payable in U.S. dollars.
- The approximately $100 million acquisition of a 209,000-square-foot colocation data center located in Weehawken, NJ leased to a subsidiary of Centersquare, a leading data center operator and portfolio company of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners. The facility is a Tier III data center with approximately 12 MW of critical power capacity and N+1 redundancy. It is triple-net leased for a remaining term of 11.1 years.
Jason Fox, Chief Executive Officer, W. P. Carey said: “I’m pleased to say we had a strong finish to 2024, completing a record quarter for investment activity, which brought us into the top half of our investment volume guidance range. The full benefit of these investments will flow through our earnings in 2025, in addition to our best-in-class rent escalations. And we’re well-positioned to continue putting capital to work this year without the need to issue equity — funding investments through the substantial liquidity we’ve built up and accretive sales of non-core assets, including operating properties. Furthermore, 2024 has established a new baseline from which we will grow our AFFO and dividend.”
W. P. Carey Inc.
W. P. Carey ranks among the largest net lease REITs with a well-diversified portfolio of high-quality, operationally critical commercial real estate, which includes 1,430 net lease properties covering approximately 172 million square feet and a portfolio of 78 self-storage operating properties as of September 30, 2024. With offices in New York, London, Amsterdam and Dallas, the company remains focused on investing primarily in single-tenant, industrial, warehouse and retail properties located in the U.S. and Northern and Western Europe, under long-term net leases with built-in rent escalations. www.wpcarey.com
