AgFe Grants Ardent UK £100 Million in Financing for Industrial and Logistics Fund
The Ardent Companies UK, the subsidiary of US-based real estate investment and asset management firm The Ardent Companies, has secured £100 million in acquisition and accordion financing for its UK Industrial and Logistics fund from AgFe.
The financing included an acquisition facility for a portfolio of four core industrial assets with an in-place occupancy of 99%, a weighted average unexpired lease term to break of 7.1 years, and a WAULT to expiry of 8.3 years. The financing also includes an accordion facility, which will enable Ardent UK to acquire more assets under the same strategy.
The senior loan was provided by AgFe on behalf of one of its European insurance account mandates. The loan represents 65% loan-to-value and has been provided for a three-year term.
The four assets, acquired between December 2021 and February 2022, are: a 234,685- square-foot unit in Pickering, North Yorkshire; a 50,124-square-foot unit in Peterlee, County Durham; Tokenspire Business Park, a 305,885-square-foot multi-let estate in Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire; and a 18,841-square-foot unit at 717B North Circular Road in north west London.
Richard Benson, managing director of Ardent UK, said: “This financing is a major step forward in the growth of Ardent UK’s industrial and logistics fund, reflecting the ongoing opportunities presented by the sector and the strength of our acquisition and asset management strategies. It is exciting to establish a new relationship with AgFe and we look forward to deploying this facility with further acquisitions of strategically-located assets with strong leasing fundamentals.”
James Wright, head of real estate at AgFe, added: “AgFe is very pleased to be working with JLL and Ardent UK, and supporting the growth of their UK industrials portfolio over the next few years. The fundamentals of this sector continue to be very attractive – the granular, diversified exposure coupled with significant asset management potential offered by this portfolio make this a very compelling lending opportunity, and we look forward to helping Ardent UK grow with additional acquisitions.”
JLL Debt Advisory advised Ardent.
By Sharon Smyth CoStar News
VineBrook Acquires Single-Family Portfolio Held by The Ardent Companies and The Prager Group
A joint venture between The Prager Group (“Prager”) and The Ardent Companies (“Ardent”) announces the sale of just under 3,000 single-family rental homes to VineBrook Homes Trust, in a deal totaling $350 million. VineBrook, a private real estate investment trust, will acquire the companies’ entire portfolio of single-family residential assets.
Prager was established in 2009 and formed a Co-GP joint venture with Atlanta-based Ardent, an asset management firm focused on debt and equity investment, in January 2017. Since the initial partnership with Ardent in 2017, Prager has sourced and managed additional portfolios to continue growth under the joint venture and realized strong investor returns with the portfolio sale.
“We are thrilled to see the success of our partnership with The Prager Group,” said Matt Shulman, CEO at Ardent.
With the majority of units spread across the southeast, the deal allows VineBrook Homes Trust to expand its presence in the Southeast. In addition to the assets, Prager agreed to sell the operating company as well that was established in 2010.
“Today marks an exciting day in our company’s evolution and the success of this deal would not be possible without all of the hard work by everyone on the Prager Team and our partnership with and support from Ardent,” said Merek Shoob, Managing Director of The Prager Group.
The deal, which went under contract in October of 2021, originated earlier last year when VineBrook approached Prager in its efforts to grow their single-family rental portfolio. Raymond James served as financial advisor throughout the transaction process.
Atlanta Catches Up As A Growing Flex Office Market
After spending years below the top 20 largest flex office markets in North America, Atlanta is finally catching up.
Atlanta saw the sixth largest gross expansion of flex office offerings between Q4 2020 and Q3 2021, according to research from real estate services giant CBRE.
Flex space, or pre-built work environments that tenants can lease for shorter periods of time, represents just under 2% of Atlanta’s office market. But square footage is rapidly expanding as companies’ uncertainties in post-pandemic work strategies are driving their office decision making.
“The activity alone in the last 90 days on a couple of these flex providers is even pushing, if not already exceeding, where we were in Q4 2019,” said RJ Zurak, Vice President of Advisory and Transaction Services with CBRE. “That has everybody pretty darn bullish as to what’s going on.”
Incorporating flex offerings — which range from coworking spaces, spec or turnkey suites and schedulable meeting rooms — allows building owners a way to capture tenants reluctant to sign longer term leases with large swaths of space. They’re often using flex space as an amenity to differentiate themselves from similar product, Zurak said.
Landlords can also use them to attract tenants to ink longer term leases in traditional spaces elsewhere in the building.
“Smaller, new groups ultimately move in, fall in love with their building, and as they grow, they grow with the landlord,” Zurak said.
Major office towers throughout Atlanta are signing management leases with coworking giants We Work and Serendipity Labs, including the Interlock in West Midtown and Buckhead’s Three Alliance Center. A number of smaller, boutique flex operators have outposts in Atlanta office campuses, like Switchyards, Strongbox West and Roam Interactive Workplace.
Some landlords are offering multiple flexible options, like The Ardent Cos.’ massive Piedmont Center campus in Buckhead, which now includes a slate of spec suites and Switchyards’ newest location. Others are circumventing flex operators entirely and “getting into the game themselves,” Zurak said. If they’ve got idle space sitting on the market, landlords will lean toward spending their tenant improvement allowances to integrate spec suites, which have performed well in Atlanta.
Commercial services company Jones Lang Lasalle (JLL) predicts owner-operated platforms will gain scale within the next year.
“That’s creating ideas, creating new competitors for all the big boys in the market, and ultimately the tenant wins because he or she has more opportunity to find the right location for them,” Zurak said.
An increase in flex square footage can benefit Atlanta, which has attracted several major corporations over the past 18 months, Zurak said. Nevermind major players like Microsoft and Visa, both of which announced plans to open hubs in Atlanta — smaller companies sending down 10 employees to take advantage of Atlanta’s resource base can use flex space to house their operations until they decide on their next move.
“I think flex is in a big-time position to capitalize not only on the new jobs the specific companies have created but there’s a lot of different groups they’re going to draft on that,” Zurak said.
Adent UK Makes £21.3 Million Double Light Industrial Buy
The Ardent Companies UK , the acquisitive subsidiary of US-based real estate investment and asset management firm The Ardent Companies, has completed the acquisition of two light industrial assets for a total of £21.3 million.
The acquisitions, made as part of Ardent UK’s strategy to establish a geographically balanced logistics portfolio, comprise Tokenspire Business Park in Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire and 717B North Circular Road in Brent, north west London.
Tokenspire Business Park comprises 306,000 sq ft of space across 36 separate units and was acquired from Vengrove Real Estate Management for £15.55 million, reflecting a net initial yield of 6.57%. The site includes planning permission for eight new units, including five trade counters, which will mark Ardent UK’s first move into development.
In London, 717B North Circular Road was purchased from Pears Group for £5.75 million. The 15,104 sq ft unit, set within a 0.75-acre site, is entirely let to Comptoir Group at an annual rent of £150,000, with a reversionary yield of 4.5%.
The latest additions bring Ardent UK’s industrial portfolio to over two million sq ft and are in line with its wider strategy of targeting assets in strategic locations that offer the opportunity for significantly enhanced performance and value through active asset management. In addition to further aggregation of its industrial platform, Ardent UK is exploring opportunities in the retail sector “ with repositioning potential or availability at discounted pricing “ and operational-led assets.
Richard Benson, managing director at Ardent UK, said: “While the industrial market is a hugely competitive space, there are still opportunities to be grasped for firms like Ardent UK that hold the asset management expertise to drive further growth. Both of these locations offer significant reversionary potential alongside wider asset management opportunities, particularly at Tokenspire with planning permission in place for eight new units that will be our first development activity in the UK.
“.Our industrial platform is now over two million sq ft and our wider portfolio includes assets in other sectors such as Solihull’s Touchwood shopping centre, underlining just how much has been achieved in the year since we launched. As we continue to build our platform, the opportunities presented by its geographical reach and the operational and management capabilities of our team leave us ideally-placed for future growth.
Ardent Companies Captures $38M For Midtown Urban Retail Center
The Ardent Companies, LLC, has sold 1010 Midtown, a 44,302-square-foot urban retail center Atlanta’s Midtown area, for $38 million. A JLL team of Brad Buchanan, Jim Hamilton and Andrew Kahn represented the seller; East Coast Acquisitions purchased the asset.
The center comprises the ground level of a 425-unit luxury condominium building that was not included in the sale.
The 2008-constructed property on Peachtree Street is 94% leased to a curated mix of high-performing tenants, including Sugar Factory, RA Sushi Bar, Piedmont Healthcare, Silverlake Ramen, Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate, Panera Brad, Sweathouz, Chipotle and Sage Dental.
1010 Midtown serves a dense customer base that, within a two-mile radius, includes a daytime population of more than 216,773 and a residential base of 109,750, which JLL states is anticipated to grow 12.2 percent by 2026.
Ardent UK Strengthens Team With Appointment Of New Finance Director
The Ardent Companies (“Ardent”), the US-based real estate investment and asset management firm, has bolstered its team with the appointment of Suzie Cooper as its UK Finance Director. Suzie brings a wealth of experience in Real Estate finance, joining from London-based investment firm, Henley Investment Management, where she led the corporate finance function and designed the financial control environment to enable further growth. Preceding her role at Henley, Suzie worked for Grosvenor Estate for over 17 years.
In her new role, Suzie will work alongside the UK co-Managing Directors Andrew Hilston and Richard Benson to raise UK capital as well as support the investment and performance analysis of Ardent’s acquisitions, leasing and disposals. With Suzie’s added expertise, Ardent will be able to accelerate its UK growth by adding to its diverse portfolio of opportunity-led investments which span multiple sectors across the entire UK.
Richard Benson, Managing Director, Ardent, commented: “We are impressed by Suzie’s extensive track record as a senior finance professional, with experience across private equity, investment and asset management firms. Suzie’s experience of designing and implementing streamlined processes to drive efficiency will prove invaluable as we look to grow our UK portfolio and expand into new cities and sectors in the coming months.
Suzie Cooper commented: “Ardent’s incredible ambition and rapid growth in the UK market was a major attraction of the role. I’m looking forward to sharing my experience with the team as we continue to expand Ardent’s impressive portfolio.”
Switchyards To Open Buckhead Outpost At Piedmont Center
The first Buckhead location of Switchyards is headed for the Piedmont Center.
The Atlanta-based work club will occupy just over 5,000 square feet at the 14-building office campus, marking the first slate of collaborative, coworking-style spaces to open at the Piedmont Center.
The announcement of the Switchyards opening is the next step forward for The Ardent Cos.’s multiyear revitalization of the 45-acre Buckhead campus, which includes 2.2 million square feet of commercial office space. It follows the addition of spec suites to the Piedmont Center in an effort to expand flexible office options for future and existing tenants.
Founded in 2016, Switchyards is a members-only workspace operating in four neighborhoods throughout Atlanta: Cabbagetown, the Westside, downtown and Decatur. They’re open, communal spaces anchored by coffee shops and quiet “heads down library” areas. For $50 a month, members have access to all four locations.
The Piedmont Center space, which spans the ground floor of Building 3, is the first of Switchyards locations to open directly in an office campus. It’s also the first to have an expansive courtyard — existing locations have outdoor tables, but the Buckhead location opens out into a “football field of a front yard,” said Switchyards founder Michael Tavani — and a wealth of accessible parking. It’s a setting conducive “to the way people work today,” said Ardent Managing Director Mike Guynn — where outdoor spaces have quickly become value-added amenities.
“I’ve always wanted a big landlord to utilize Switchyards in this way, which is putting Switchyards in the middle of a big development where we become this third place, this hotel lobby of a big development,” Tavani said.
The Buckhead location is the next to follow Switchyards’ December launch in Decatur. At a higher membership price of $100, it was the first location to implement Switchyards’ new 24-hour silent library model.
The location will open on February 22.
Start Spec Office Program Part Of Reimagined Piedmont Center
The Ardent Companies has announced Start Spec, a speculative office program at Piedmont Center, the two million-square-foot, Class-A campus that spans 14 buildings in Buckhead.
Interested companies will be able to choose from several flexible, creative offices paces, ranging from 2,200 to more than 7,000 square feet at the site located at 3525 Piedmont Road.
The first phase of Start Spec encompasses eight office spaces, each offering a unique architectural feature, such as wood ceiling tiles or jewel box conference spaces. Companies can furnish the space themselves or select a turnkey option.
Tenants will also have access to a 144-seat auditorium, 30,000 square feet of WiFi-enabled outdoor space, state-of-the art fitness centers, on-site cafes, dedicated rideshare pickup zones, a Relay Bike Share station. and more.
The campus is surrounded by a 1.2-mile nature trail, bridge connections, and links to adjacent properties are planned to enhance walkability to nearby housing, retail, and restaurants.
Start Spec is part of Ardent’s ongoing transformation of Piedmont Center into a mixed-use destination. Ardent began its investment into Piedmont Center in 2016, completing its acquisition of all 14 buildings in June 2021.
“As we continue to make strides in revitalizing the campus into an amenity-rich destination, we’re confident the reimagined Piedmont Center will not only serve our diverse tenant mix, but also the entire Buckhead community,” said Mike Guynn, managing director with Ardent.
For more information, visit pcstartspec.com.
Ardent Cos. Adding 8 Spec Suites to Piedmont Center
As part of its multiyear revitalization of Buckhead’s Piedmont Center, the Ardent Cos. is integrating eight spec suites across its 45-acre campus.
The slate of spec suites — pre-built, “turnkey” spaces that allow tenants to skirt delays usually required in office buildout — is Ardent’s latest venture to integrate flexible office space into Piedmont Center.
It’s also a response to a broader market trend of tenants seeking agile options as pandemic-related uncertainty muddies their immediate needs for space and accommodation. Betting on an improvement in demand for office space in 2022, global real estate research firm CBRE anticipates flexible space adoption will accelerate in the next year.
“The economy continues to grow — our current tenants are growing, outside tenants looking for space sometimes do not have the luxury of time on their side to identify and secure an office location,” said Ardent Cos. Managing Director Mike Guynn.
The key advantage of a spec suite is flexibility. They’re offices for the nimble — less communal than coworking spaces, but structured with the same ability to scale.
The lease execution for a spec suite is typically shorter than a traditional office space, which allows businesses or firms to easily move-in or move-out on tighter timelines. Similarly, lease terms are less rigid — spanning three years instead of five or 10, as an example. CBRE anticipates tenants becoming less hesitant with signing longer-term leasing decisions as office rebounds in 2022, but the shorter leasing option is still an attractor to companies in growth mode.
The added benefit of flexibility doesn’t come for free, however — owners are often inclined to charge premiums for ready-built spec spaces, according to a pre-pandemic study of speculative office spaces by commercial real estate advisory firm Newmark.
Atlanta is not a leading flexible office market. It’s not lacking, however — there is a concentration of coworking spaces within a five-mile radius around Piedmont Center — but its inventory is far lower than that of other Sunbelt cities like San Francisco, Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston.
Embedding flexibility into their offerings became a key part of Ardent’s business model as it began to modernize the property in 2016. It comes with the territory — there’s enough space across the 14-building Piedmont Center campus to grow with tenants as their needs evolve.
Past and current tenants have jumped from space to space as their operations have outpaced expectations from when they signed their initial lease. The idea to add spec suites to their portfolio — a program named Start Spec — partially came out of tenants’ requests for options to expand.
“In the last 12 months, we get more phone calls from people saying we need X amount of square feet for the next six to 12 months or two years, or we just got funding as a new company and we’re ready to expand into a real office space,” Guynn said.
Ardent will spread out the spec suites throughout the 14-building campus, with spaces ranging between 2,200 and 7,000 square feet and varying in design. Asking rents will vary based on the space, and Ardent anticipates delivering the units in January or February of next year.
he Ardent Companies (“Ardent”), the US-based real estate investment and asset management firm, has added to its growing UK logistics portfolio with two new mid-box acquisitions in Peterlee, County Durham and Pickering, North Yorkshire. The properties were acquired in a single 285,000 sq ft transaction from Alliance Property Group for approximately £11m, representing a net initial yield of 7%.
Ardent’s logistics portfolio now totals 1.7m sq ft across 14 different strategic locations across the UK, and the team continues to seek out value-add opportunities in multiple sectors including industrial and retail.
The assets in Peterlee and Pickering are fully let to specialist automotive manufacturers and offer a weighted average unexpired lease term of approximately 12.5 years.
PETERLEE
The 50,124 sq ft facility in Peterlee, strategically located on the town’s North Industrial Estate close to the major A19, with Newcastle-upon-Tyne to the north and Leeds to the south. The main building is fully occupied by the global technology company ZF International UK LTD, which has been the main tenant for over 19 years. ZF is focused on the transformation of mobility, supplying systems for passenger cars, commercial vehicles and industrial technology – enabling the next generation of mobility, allowing vehicles to see, think and act.
PICKERING
The 234,685 sq ft facility in Pickering, North Yorkshire, consists of three detached buildings across a large industrial scheme which vary in size and age. The tenant Xandor Automotive, alongside its client Jaguar Land Rover, has recently injected significant investment into plant and machinery at the facility.
Richard Benson, Managing Director of Ardent, said; “These acquisitions perfect align with our strategy to assemble a diverse portfolio of opportunity-led investments. Both assets benefit from offering bespoke, high-specification facilities that serve the needs of cutting-edge automotive operators. These two new deals in the portfolio underline our appetite to grow Ardent’s industrial platform in the UK, particularly opportunity-led investments.
In accordance with Ardent’s structure of maximizing alignment of interests within its portfolio and with its partners, it will introduce M7 as asset manager to continue to drive the value of the wider portfolio.
Ardent was represented by CBRE, while the vendor, Alliance Property Group, was advised by Avison Young