Envision Secures $500 Million To Buy Cold Storage Properties
New Firm Has Made Early Investments in Texas, California and Canada
By Mark Heschmeyer, CoStar News | Source Link
Recently formed Envision Cold has lined up a $500 million investment from an undisclosed capital partner, setting it up to acquire and develop over $1.5 billion of cold storage properties.
Based in Atlanta, the company plans to focus on markets that are underserved by cold storage from both a physical infrastructure and customer service perspective.
National cold storage development hit an all-time high of 9.8 million square feet — an estimated 216.2 million cubic feet — in 2022, driven by a proliferation of users and operators as the sector grew following a surge of demand during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report last month from the brokerage Newmark.
A Newmark team led by co-presidents of debt and structured finance Jordan Roeschlaub and Dustin Stolly secured the initial investment for Envision.
Despite development hitting a new high in 2022, the supply of modern cold storage space has lagged, as speculative construction remains risky given the current interest rate environment, Newmark said.
With the new investment, however, Newmark’s Roeschlaub said he expects “Envision to have a great runway to create scale in the cold storage sector.”
Since the company's inception, Envision has closed on acquiring cold storage operations and properties in Oakland, California; San Francisco; Laredo, Texas; and Vancouver, British Columbia, Austin Solem, co-founder and CEO, told CoStar News in an email.
“The magnitude of this investment was driven by the strength of not only our team’s commitment to innovation and service but also to the opportunity within the market itself. The cold storage industry is stronger than ever, but it needs more national providers to satisfy the increasing demand,” Solem said.
Solem previously launched and ran Americold’s merger and acquisition department and played a pivotal role in taking Americold public in 2018. While at Americold, he was instrumental in structuring acquisitions totaling $4.6 billion and comprising 99 facilities in 12 countries.
