Jera Asset Management, Invesco Real Estate Form JV

David Kay, Managing Partner, Jera Asset Management. Image courtesy of Jera Asset Management

Invesco Real Estate and Jera Asset Management have formed a strategic joint venture, Mercury Trust, to focus on the current strong industrial markets.

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Mercury Trust was seeded with almost $500 million of assets across the country that have been acquired or are under contract to be acquired. Invesco, on behalf of an institutional client, made “a significant equity commitment for investment in future acquisitions” through the trust.

In addition, Mercury Trust has obtained a $675 million credit facility for current and future acquisitions.

The REIT is intended to own industrial assets that are net-leased to investment-grade and high-quality non–investment-grade companies across the U.S., with an emphasis on distribution centers, logistics properties and cold storage facilities.

Mercury Trust is externally managed via the joint venture between Jera and a separately managed account of Invesco Real Estate.

A list of the initial properties is not being released, nor is information regarding the relative ownership stakes in Mercury Trust, Jera Managing Partner David Kay told Commercial Property Executive. He noted that Jera has been involved in the net-lease sector since the company’s inception in early 2019, focusing specifically on net-leased industrial.

Kay added that he and his fellow managing partner at Jera, Carrington Guy, “see a lot of opportunities in that sector with Mercury Trust. We also see a lot of opportunities in the retail and office net-lease space and capitalizing on those spaces with various partners as well.”

Active buyers

In January, Invesco acquired a four-building office/R&D campus in Boulder, Colo., from Tritower Financial Group for $99 million. The 151,384-square-foot property is fully leased to Pfizer.

In the fall of 2019, Jera partnered with DRA Advisors to purchase a 27-building, 3.3 million-square-foot industrial portfolio, for a total of $205 million. Spread across 15 states, the portfolio reportedly was fully leased to just 14 tenants.