TH Real Estate has raised $330m (€291m) for its US Strategic Industrial Fund I, giving it $1bn of leveraged buying power to acquire and develop bulk and light industrial assets.

The fund will focus on well located properties in top industrial markets, including last-mile locations that are central to e-commerce supply chains.

Brad Simpkins, portfolio manager for the fund, said: “While the traditional port-driven warehouse markets continue to grow at a consistent pace, online commerce is accelerating demand for state-of-the-art facilities that can facilitate same-day and one-hour deliveries in major metropolitan areas across the US.

“A supply shortfall in these facilities coupled with healthy economic growth has generated significant pent-up demand for these industrial properties.”

TH Real Estate, an affiliate of Nuveen, has been investing in the industrial sector since 1953 and today manages approximately $11.2bn of industrial properties globally.

Graydon Bouchillon, head of US industrial at TH Real Estate, said: “Investor interest in this asset class remains strong, reflecting the opportunities created by a growing economy and a supply shortage that keeps vacancy rates low and rents high.

“The fund attracted a wide range of interest from sophisticated institutional investors, individuals and financial advisers, reflecting broad-based interested in our diversified investment strategy.”

The fund has already acquired four US assets, including 301 Business Center, an 863,000sqft development project in Tampa, Florida, and Empire Business Park, which consists of two multi-tenant business parks encompassing 212,626sqft of space, located in Southern California’s Inland Empire.

The other two assets are Serrano Business Park, a development consisting of three facilities totaling 327,080 sqft, also in Inland Empire, and 8575 Volta Drive, a 168,425sqft industrial warehouse in Houston, Texas. 

According to TH Real Estate’s THINK US Cities: 2019 Outlook, the firm forecasts rental growth in the industrial sector to continue to outperform other sectors in 2019 as supply remains constrained.

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