Top 20 Commercial Property Owners of 2021

By the Editors of Commercial Property Executive

October 28, 2021

Find out which firms made CPE’s annual list of industry leaders.

You can also read our other Top CRE Owners rankings.

Rank	Company	Total Owned (MSF)	Total Portfolio Value ($MM)	Average Occupancy	Portfolio Diversity
1	Nuveen	605.2	$ 139,119.0	–	O, I, R, Ho, X
2	Clarion Partners	252.8	$50,900.0	95.8%	O, I, R, Ho, X
3	Tishman Speyer	63.4	$46,600.0	–	O, X
4	Lincoln Property Co.	258.6	$4,975.0	92.0%	O, I, R
5	Duke Realty	159.0	$9,844.2	98.2%	I
6	First Industrial Realty Trust	66.9	$8,500.0	96.6%	I
7	Vornado Realty Trust	27.1	$12,361.3	90.0%	O, R
8	Holt Lunsford Commercial	83.5	$-	89.9%	O, I
9	Majestic Realty Co.	82.0	$-	–	O, I, R, Ho
10	KBS	17.0	$5,608.5	83.6%	O, I
11	Service Properties Trust	29.4	$12,800.0	–	R, Ho
12	Diversified Healthcare Trust	36.7	$8,200.0	–	He, X
13	The Inland Real Estate Group of Cos.	30.8	$6,700.0	94.0%	O, I, R, Ho, X
14	Harbor Group International	4.4	$2,300.0	93.0%	O, I, R
15	Transwestern Investment Group	17.9	$3,688.0	85.0%	O, I, R
16	Hunt Cos.	2.2	$-	86.7%	O, I, R, Ho, He, X
17	Office Properties Income Trust	24.1	$4,700.0	89.5%	O
18	CP Group	13.0	$2,300.0	78.0%	O
19	FPA Multifamily	5.5	$2,000.0	92.0%	O, I, R, Ho
20	Industrial Logistics Properties Trust	35.2	$2,100.0	99.0%	I

Key: O=Office, I=Industrial, R=Retail, He=Health Care, Ho=Hospitality, X=Other

To be included in upcoming surveys, email Agota Felhazi at [email protected].

Diversified Owners Endure Changes

Following a difficult 2020, the new year has presented its own set of challenges for commercial real estate owners. While the hospitality and retail sectors continue their long roads to recovery, more and more employees have begun the shift back to office space.

Commercial property owners, however, still need to contend with and navigate the myriad changes facing all property sectors due to the pandemic. From reconfigured office layouts to contactless service in retail and hospitality, property owners have largely stepped up and made the necessary investments.

Nuveen once again leads our list of top commercial property owners, boasting a 605 million square foot portfolio spanning the commercial real estate spectrum. The portfolio was valued at nearly $140 billion at the end of June 2021. Clarion Partners came in second place, with more than 250 million square feet globally. While more than half of the company’s assets are industrial, it also owns office, retail, hospitality and storage space.

Diversification remains a nearly uniform strength across our list. Seventy percent of our top 20 owners have portfolios including two or more asset types, with half even further diversified, with three or more under ownership. Environmentally sustainable properties have also continued to become a key component of most portfolios. Half of the companies on our list indicated that more than 10 percent of their holdings had attained a green certification.

Industrial real estate remains the darling sector, with 14 of our top 20 companies owning a collective 769.6 million square feet, or 42 percent of space owned by those on our list. Office properties, despite occupancy setbacks since early last year, also continued to appeal to investors, with 538 million square feet reported by our top 20, or nearly 30 percent of the total.

Methodology

The 2021 Commercial Property Executive Top Owners ranking utilized self-reported data for all firms. The ranking results from a weighted formula based on a variety of factors (only a few of which are specified here), including total square footage owned, owned portfolio value, historic performance and a focused or diversified participation in property sectors. The ranking represents what we feel is a logical balance between firm growth and market share, as well as property diversity.

—Jeff Hamann, Senior Associate Editor, CPE

Read the November 2021 issue of CPE.