BentallGreenOak to Buy Metropolitan Real Estate

Guangdong, China. Image courtesy of Mehmet Turgut Kirkgoz via Pixabay.com

BentallGreenOak’s string of 2021 acquisition deals continues, this time with the planned purchase of Metropolitan Real Estate Equity LLC. BentallGreenOak has just entered into an agreement to acquire the multi-manager real estate private equity investment platform from The Carlyle Group Inc. for an undisclosed figure. Metropolitan will bring more than $2.4 billion in assets under management to the table.

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Established in 2002, Metropolitan last changed hands when Carlyle purchased the New York-based firm in 2013. Metropolitan provides clients with access to an integrated platform of primary, secondary and co-investment real estate investment opportunities, relying on both traditional value-add and opportunistic strategies. The firm’s list of notable transactions over the last few years includes the closing of its Secondaries Program II with $1.2 billion raised, a figure well over its $750 million target. And more recently, in November 2020, the firm joined international real estate company Hines on the acquisition of an approximately 362,000-square-foot cold storage facility leased to Walmart at 680 Gangkou Ave. and adjacent development site in Dongguan City, Guangdong Province, in the Great Bay Area of China.

With the addition of Metropolitan to its business, BentallGreenOak will be able to provide its clients and investors with supplemental global investment strategies and opportunities. The company is in it for the long haul, with plans of growing Metropolitan into a global leader. And a mutual focus on investment performance, a common entrepreneurial mindset and a cultural alignment will serve as the glue that will unite the companies’ complementary platforms.  

Buy now

Barely two months into the New Year and BentallGreenOak has already been busy with announcements of new acquisition deals. In January, the global real estate investment management advisor revealed that, in partnership with Equation Properties, it had just completed the purchase of Orwell Logistics Park, a 60-acre development site near the Port of Felixstowe, the U.K.’s dominant container port. During the first month of the year, the company also purchased the approximately 607,200-square-foot North Bay Logistics Center in Fairfield, Calif., for $73.5 million on behalf of a discretionary investment vehicle. And earlier this month, BentallGreenOak inked a contract to purchase an approximately 2.2 million-square-foot portfolio of high-quality U.K. logistics assets from funds managed by Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing. The company also bought a 90,000-square-foot Brooklyn warehouse leased to Amazon.

BentallGreenOak’s planned purchase of Metropolitan from Carlyle has not yet cleared all customary closing conditions. However, the transaction is on track to reach completion in the first half of 2021.

BentallGreenOak received legal advice from Akin Gump, while Carlyle was represented by Latham and Watkins.