Hillwood CEO: How latest $1B venture will work
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Hillwood Investments CEO Todd Platt
After Ross Perot[6] Jr.'s Dallas-based Hillwood[7] Investments announced Tuesday it had teamed with a major sovereign wealth fund on a new $1 billion industrial real estate venture[8], CEO Todd Platt[9] spoke to the Dallas Business Journal, laying out the partnership's goals.
The plan: Acquire, develop and invest in industrial real estate. Platt gives us some more insight.
How is this partnership different than Hillwood's venture with [10]Brookfield Asset Management[11]? I would say this is an extension of what we started last year. Hillwood's history with the industry goes back to being anchored by AllianceTexas and that's always been the foundation for a very rapidly expanding industrial business. Sixteen years ago, we started expanding the industrial program outside of Alliance into what have now become 13 markets across the U.S. In another several months, we'll have a couple of markets in Europe, such as Poland and potentially Germany. Brookfield will not be a part of the new U.S. fund. They have their own strategy and we have ours.
Why does Hillwood want to expand in Europe? It's an opportunity to be in a buyer's market instead of a seller's market. We are expanding our logistics platform. The announced fund Tuesday will be our second fund, although we've done numerous partnerships with institutional capital. These are all programs where Hillwood is a significant co-investor with an alignment of interests and responsible for day-to-day decisions.
Which country is behind the sovereign wealth fund? I can't say. About 50 percent of sovereign wealth funds prefer not to be in the press.
What does this mean to the market that a sovereign wealth fund is investing in industrial real estate? It shows the confidence of industrial real estate as an appropriate product type of the funds. The nature of sovereign wealth funds is that they are long-term investors that want a product type that performs over a long period of time.
Will North Texas see some of this investment? All institutional investors recognize the long-term market value of the North Texas market. North Texas will be a significant focus area, but it's difficult to predict how much investment there will be at this time.
Candace covers commercial and residential real estate and sports business.
References
- ^ Candace Carlisle (feeds.bizjournals.com)
- ^ This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (feeds.bizjournals.com)
- ^ Twitter (twitter.com)
- ^ Twitter (twitter.com)
- ^ Google+ (plus.google.com)
- ^ Ross Perot (feeds.bizjournals.com)
- ^ Hillwood (www.bizjournals.com)
- ^ new $1 billion industrial real estate venture (www.bizjournals.com)
- ^ Todd Platt (feeds.bizjournals.com)
- ^ venture with (feeds.bizjournals.com)
- ^ Brookfield Asset Management (www.bizjournals.com)