Brennan unveils program to help corporate clients

            Brennan Investment Group, a Chicago-based company that has been among the most active industrial real estate developers in the Interstate 4 corridor between Tampa and Orlando in recent years, has unveiled a new program aimed at helping corporate clients manage their supply chains and other real estate.

            Corporate Real Estate Solutions (CRES) will encompass the development of new facilities for companies, purchasing surplus properties from clients, executing build-to-suit projects and sale-leaseback transactions up to $500 million in value.

            Brennan believes that the coronavirus pandemic will further push U.S. companies to try to lessen distribution disruptions through creative solutions.

            “More than at any time in history, supply chain designs are rapidly evolving with the goal of minimizing disruptions,” says Michael Brennan, the firm’s co-founder and chairman.

            Brennan also contends that corporate ownership of the majority of U.S. industrial real estate assets, combined with technological advancements, provides an opportunity for well-positioned developers to capitalize on existing and emerging trends.

            Bob Krueger, a Brennan managing principal and co-founder based in Tampa who is currently developing a more than $100 million, 1.5 million-square-foot industrial project on 165 acres in Lakeland called CenterState Logistics Park East, agrees that corporations with greater geographic reaches than ever before will increasingly need assistance from experts in managing and developing distribution facilities.

            “We’ve called on a number of large companies with holdings all along the Eastern U.S. relative to their real estate, and the response we’re getting has been very favorable,” says Krueger.

Krueger’s previous project, a 605,000-square-foot industrial property, was fully leased by Pepsico division Quaker Oats just a few months upon completion in 2016. In the wake of the lease, Brennan sold the asset to Los Angeles-based real estate investment trust Griffin Capital Essential Asset REIT Inc. for $59.6 million.

In all, Illinois-based Brennan currently owns more than 44 million square feet of industrial real estate in 29 states, according to its website.