WPT Industrial REIT (WIR-U-T) is selling a minority interest in a $370 million (all figures US) industrial portfolio to the Investment Management Corporation of Ontario (IMCO) to create a joint venture focused on the American industrial sector.

WPT’s contribution to the JV is a 13-property portfolio spread across five states and comprising about 4.75 million square feet of leasable space. The agreement will expand on an existing relationship with IMCO, which contributed $150 million to the original venture in the summer of 2020.

“The formation of a new stabilized joint venture represents meaningful progress on our capital recycling initiative and underscores the REIT’s ability to attract and expand our relationships with strong institutional capital partners,” said Scott Frederiksen, chief executive officer of WPT REIT, in the announcement Monday morning. “The transaction strengthens our balance sheet, provides additional capacity to fund our growing development pipeline, and accelerates growth in our private capital management platform.”

Properties in the WPT, IMCO joint venture

WPT REIT will manage the properties acquired by the joint venture.

The 13 properties contributed to the joint venture by WPT are:

WPT reports the portfolio is 100 per cent leased with a weighted average lease term of approximately 5.5 years.

The JV intends to hold stabilized, income-producing properties, expands the REIT’s management fee income and includes future leasing and incentive fees.

The REIT says it is achieving slightly higher than IFRS fair value for the interest in the portfolio, which will generate approximately $255 million in sale and financing proceeds. This will be used to pay down debt and fund future developments and investments.

The funds will allow WPT to lower its debt-to-assets by four per cent on a consolidated basis and two per cent on a proportionate share basis, resulting in liquidity of $153 million.

IMCO and WPT closed on their joint first acquisition in August of 2020, a 772,800-square-foot industrial development in Burlington County, N.J. At that time, it said the two parties intended to pursue additional industrial value-add and development investments in strategic U.S. distribution and logistics markets.

“Consumers are relying on e-commerce more than ever and expect robust inventories and rapid delivery times throughout the U.S.,” said Brian Whibbs, managing director, IMCO, in its 2020 announcement. “Our joint venture with the REIT is well aligned to IMCO’s real estate strategy to invest in logistics networks that help meet consumer demands and diversify our portfolio to include industrial.

“WPT Industrial REIT has a strong track record and is a leader in the logistics space, representing the kind of resilient partner we seek for our clients and portfolio.”

Last fall, IMCO, TorQuest Partners and OPTrust created a partnership to acquire another significant logistics provider, VersaCold Logistics Services. VersaCold is one of Canada’s largest cold-storage warehousing and food logistics firms, and had been owned by KingSett Capital and Ivanhoé Cambridge. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

ABOUT IMCO and WPT

IMCO manages $70.3 billion of assets on behalf of its clients.

Its mandate is to provide broader public sector institutions with investment management services, including portfolio construction advice, better access to a diverse range of asset classes and risk management capabilities.

WPT Industrial REIT is established under the laws of Ontario. It acquires, develops, manages and owns industrial properties in the United States, with a particular focus on warehouse and distribution properties.

Its operating subsidiary WPT Industrial LP indirectly owns a portfolio of 100 industrial properties across 20 states with approximately 31.8 million square feet of GLA.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article has been updated to clarify the timing (August 2020) of the original venture involving both WPT and IMCO.