Oxford Properties, a global real estate investor, asset manager and business builder, has agreed to acquire a 14.5 million square foot infill and light industrial portfolio from KKR, a global investment firm, for approximately $2.2 billion. The portfolio consists of 149 distribution buildings located across 12 industrial U.S. markets, including the Inland Empire, Dallas, Atlanta, Phoenix, Chicago, Houston, Tampa, Orlando, San Diego and the Baltimore Washington corridor.

“Four years ago, we set out to create a large stabilized portfolio that would benefit from secular changes in the logistics sector largely driven by e-commerce and consumer preference changes. Given the highly fragmented asset class, the strategy included the creation of a best-in-class operating platform and a targeted investment effort focused on growing cities and key distribution nodes in the U.S.,” said Roger Morales, partner and head of real estate acquisitions, KKR. “Today’s transaction not only demonstrates how this strategy is performing for our investors, but also reflects the tremendous market opportunity we continue to see in industrial real estate.”

”High quality, infill, consumption-driven industrial portfolios of scale trade infrequently, so this transaction is an important next step for Oxford to build a large scale industrial business in the U.S.,” commented Ankit Bhatt, VP of Investments at Oxford Properties who leads the firm’s U.S. industrial investment strategy. “Growing our U.S. industrial business is one of Oxford’s highest conviction global investment strategies as we continue to build, buy and invest in the physical infrastructure that serves the digital economy. The acquisition serves as a launchpad for Oxford’s light industrial business which perfectly complements our big box development platform, IDI Logistics. We believe scale will become an important differentiator for industrial real estate operators, and we continue to pursue opportunities in the U.S. light industrial sector.”

“Across the globe, we are building, buying and growing world class industrial business in service of our global capital allocation priorities,” commented Chad Remis, EVP of North America at Oxford Properties. “As a result of this transaction, and recent activity in the sector, we are rapidly closing in our stated goal to have one-third of our global equity deployed into the industrial asset class. Having previously been a mezzanine lender on the portfolio acquired from KKR, we have a high degree of conviction on the growth potential of these assets. It also demonstrates the power of Oxford’s fully integrated Credit business to help drive future investment synergies while generating attractive returns.”

CBRE National Partners acted as real estate advisor for KKR. JLL Industrial Capital Markets acted as advisor for Oxford.