Veteran Industrial Broker Departs JLL, Inland Real Estate Taps New CEO, Former iStar President To Oversee Sixth Street’s US Real Estate

Broker Blake Rodgers, who was a member of JLL’s national industrial service facilities practice, has left the company to launch an investment firm with partner Pasha Johnson. The new San Diego-based firm called Steel Peak will focus on buying industrial outdoor storage, or IOS, properties that recently have grown in popularity among investors. IOS properties are within a sub-segment of the industrial asset class that serves the transportation, logistics, and construction sectors. IOS sites are categorized as having less than 20% building coverage and are zoned for industrial uses that allow the outdoor storage of vehicles, products, construction equipment, materials and containers. Steel Peak said it will seek to acquire IOS properties throughout Southern California with values ranging from $5 million to $50 million. It plans to make direct investments and invest in properties with institutional partners and high net-worth investors.

“Over the past few years, we’ve seen an increase in demand for IOS properties from national tenants that are competing to identify sites in an extremely supply constrained market,” Rodgers, a Steel Peak principal and co-founder, said in a statement. Fellow principal and co-founder Johnson said Steel Peak hopes to seize on an emerging trend. “Generally when LP equity partners love an asset class and most lenders still hate it, there is a window of opportunity,” he said in a statement. “We will target a wide range of IOS sites including contractor yards, equipment rental facilities, maintenance facilities, trailer yards, truck terminals, and fleet storage facilities.” Rodgers spent the past four years at JLL, closing more than 20 IOS transactions. Johnson previously served as a principal and partner at commercial mortgage banking firm Pacific Southwest Realty Services, where he worked with lenders including insurance companies, CMBS sponsors, regional and national banks and debt funds.

Inland Real Estate Investment Corp., a firm that manages investments for public and private real estate securities products, said Mitchell Sabshon has decided to retire from his positions of president and CEO and as a director Feb. 1. The company also said its board appointed Keith Lampi, currently president and CEO of Inland Private Capital Corp., or IPC, part of Inland Real Estate Group of Cos., to succeed Sabshon. Sabshon will remain in his current roles at InPoint Commercial Real Estate Income and Inland Real Estate Income Trust, two of the public non-listed real estate investment trusts that Inland Real Estate Investment sponsors. He will work closely with Lampi “to ensure a successful transition both prior to and subsequent to his retirement,” Inland Real Estate Investment said.

“Now is the right time for me to retire and embark on a new chapter in my life so I can focus on my passions outside of work and spend more time with my family,” Sabshon said in a statement. The leadership transition is part of Inland Real Estate Investment’s long-term succession plan, the company said. Lampi’s more than 20-year career at IPC began as an intern during the company’s inception in 2001. He rose to the top as president and CEO of IPC, which has more than $12.2 billion in assets under management. Inland Real Estate said Lampi will continue in his roles at IPC and as chairman and CEO of IPC Alternative Real Estate Income Trust. Separately, Oak Brook, Illinois-based Inland Real Estate Group said last week that Daniel Goodwin, its founder, chairman and CEO, died at age of 80.

Sixth Street, a global investment firm with more than $75 billion in assets under management, said it expanded its real estate business with the addition of Marcos Alvarado as a partner and head of U.S. real estate. Alvarado, who served for the past several years as president and chief investment officer of Safehold and of iStar before Safehold acquired it last year, will assume his new role on Feb. 1, Sixth Street said. At Sixth Street, he will work with top executives to expand its real estate platform, the company said. Sixth Street acquires properties and provides financing in several real estate sectors including residential, hospitality, office, industrial and retail. Michael Muscolino, co-founder and partner at Sixth Street, said in a statement that he’s “known Marcos a long time from shared past investments” and teaming with him now makes sense as “we increase our focus on offering scaled solutions to property owners navigating changing secular trends and a volatile interest rate environment.”

Rockefeller Group, with a development portfolio that has more than doubled in the past five years, tapped Brandi Hanback to serve as co-head of development and executive vice president. Based in Annapolis, Maryland, Hanback had served as executive vice president and deputy head of development since 2019. Together with Executive Vice President Tom Weeks, the firm’s other co-head of development, Hanback will oversee strategy for and growth of Rockefeller Group’s national development platform, the company said. They will share dual responsibility for the expansion and execution of the business across all property types and divide leadership responsibilities across Rockefeller’s seven development regions in the United States. The promotion of Hanback to co-development head “is another step forward in strengthening our development business in North America,” Rockefeller Group President and CEO Daniel Moore said in a statement. Since 2019, the company’s development portfolio has grown to active projects totaling more than 14 million square feet and $5.4 billion from 6.6 million square feet and $1.6 billion five years ago. The company also added two new development regions, the Rocky Mountain region based in Denver, and the Houston-based Southwest region.

The Connor Group, a real estate investment firm with $4.5 billion in assets and a portfolio of more than 15,000 luxury apartments in 18 markets, promoted Brock Wright to the position of chief investment officer. Wright previously served as senior vice president of acquisitions, dispositions, debt and analytics. In his new role, he oversees all property acquisitions and dispositions and leads the finance team. Wright also will continue to head Connor Group’s debt, analytics, refinances and supplementals and investor relations department, the firm said. Wright joined Connor Group in 2018 and was named a partner in 2021. During his time at the firm, it expanded from 12 markets to 19 as Connor Group purchased 49 properties, had another under contract and sold 37 complexes. All told, the firm recorded a total transaction volume of more than $9 billion. Before he joined Dayton, Ohio-based Connor Group. Wright worked for almost a decade at community and regional banks.

CBRE expanded its valuation group in the U.S. and presence in Alaska with the addition of three appraisal professionals based in Anchorage. Greg Wing joined CBRE as a senior vice president along with team members Shane Smith and Mike Gibson, who now are senior appraisers. Wing, Smith and Gibson joined CBRE from North Pacific Advisors, a commercial appraisal firm Wing founded in 2011 that dissolved when the team made its move. Wing, who also founded commercial appraisal firm Howard & Wing in 1997, has more than 30 years of industry experience. Smith, who’s worked with Wing for approximately 14 years, has been a certified general real estate appraiser in Alaska since June 2016. Gibson, who worked as an appraiser and general contractor for Howard & Wing for four years, joined North Pacific Advisors in 2012. Combined, the team members have completed more than 2,000 commercial appraisals for several property types including multifamily, office, retail, industrial, special-purpose facilities and raw land.

Cushman & Wakefield added industrial broker Jimo Liu as an executive managing director in its Iselin, New Jersey, office. Liu joined Cushman & Wakefield from Avison Young, where he served as a senior vice president. At Cushman & Wakefield, he will work with new and existing industrial clients and focus on multimarket third-party logistics firms, the brokerage said. Liu is part of the Cushman & Wakefield industrial team led by Chuck Fern. Liu has more than 10 years of industry experience. In 2021, he negotiated industrial leases involving a total of over 1 million square feet of space. Before Avison Young, he was a vice president at HHE Investment, where he managed the firm’s real estate investments in the United States.