Editors’ Weekly News Roundup November 17 – November 21
When activist investors target publicly traded real estate companies, the results don’t often make headlines. Now and then, though, the change sought—and achieved—by the investor is big news, and that was the case with the past week’s most-read story on Connect CRE, a piece of breaking news headlined Rexford Leadership Shakeup: Co-CEOs Out; Laura Clark is New CEO.
The activist was Elliott Investment Management. In addition to replacing the California industrial REIT’s longtime leaders, effective this coming March, Elliott also argued for changes to the company’s capital allocation strategy and got them. “As one of the company’s largest investors, we believe these bold actions position Rexford Industrial well for this next stage in its evolution,” said Marc Steinberg, partner at Elliott.
Upsizing a company’s office space in a relocation often means that the company is relatively young and growing; mature companies these days may shrink their square footage in moving and/or consolidating from multiple locations. Schneider Electric, whose history goes back nearly 200 years, has made a leasing decision that has more in common with that of a startup.
We reported in Schneider Electric to Relocate North American Offices to Winthrop Center that the French multinational would triple its space when it moves from one Boston office to another next year. The 75,000-square-foot space will represent Schneider’s first U.S.-based Impact Building, utilizing integrated digital systems to optimize energy efficiency, occupant comfort and operational performance.
On the subject of expansion, retail operators looking to grow their footprints may find opportunities in the bankruptcy and closure of chain stores. Amazon is the latest to take advantage of an availability due to the collapse of the Rite Aid drugstore chain, as reported in the past week’s third most-read story, Amazon Flex Opens First Puget Sound Location in Former Bartell Drugs Space.
The second-floor space at Regency Centers’ Roosevelt Square, near the University of Washington’s Seattle campus, was vacated by Bartell in 2023 as part of parent company Rite Aid’s wave of store closures. Amazon already operates seven Flex locations in Washington State, but this will be the first in the retailing giant’s hometown.
In common with multifamily—and often developed near newly constructed apartment buildings—self-storage has been in growth mode in many markets nationwide. However, Yardi Matrix has noted a continuing deceleration in new self-storage development for some time.
Based on Yardi Matrix’s third-quarter development pipeline data, Self-Storage Construction Continues Slowing, but Pipeline is Fuller Than Expected ranked fourth among the week’s most-read stories. Given a larger-than-expected inventory in the under-construction pipeline at quarter’s end, Yardi Matrix now increases projected completions by 4.3% for 2025 and 4.6% for 2026, while leaving the forecast for 2027 through 2030 unchanged.
Time was when self-storage was considered a niche category for investors, but it has since gone mainstream. A similar dynamic is underway for the cold storage segment of industrial, and this helps to explain how a joint venture of a cold storage specialist and an institutional partner recapitalized a national portfolio with two other institutions.
Provender JV Recapitalizes Cold Storage Portfolio with Heitman, Artemis, the past week’s fifth most-read story, detailed the recapitalization of a 1.7-million-square-foot portfolio in nine markets. Heitman and Artemis each acquired a sub-portfolio of the 11 properties. “The successful transactions with two leading institutions, Heitman and Artemis, is a testament to the quality of the assets the joint venture has assembled, and the platform Provender has built,” said JLL’s Sher Hafeez, a leader of the team that arranged the deals.