newsworthy
Australian developer
leaps into U.S. industrial
property market
THE NORTH AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY MARKET
now has a monster in its midst.
Goodman Group, the Australian property giant with $20 billion
in assets, has made its first foray into North America. The company, which is looking to fill a gap in its global portfolio by establishing a sizable footprint on this continent, comes armed with a
multibillion dollar war chest.
Sydney-based Goodman recently entered into a deal with
Irvine, Calif.-based Birtcher Development & Investments to form
a company—called Goodman Birtcher—that will identify and
develop industrial projects from northern Canada to the Panama
Canal. Goodman, along with an unnamed partner, will initially
commit $800 million of equity to the part-
nership. The first “tranche,” or portion, of
the investment is expected to total $1.4 bil-
lion, an amount that is projected to grow to
$5 billion in five years, Brandon Birtcher,
Birtcher’s president and CEO, says.
Goodman, one of the world’s largest
industrial property developers outside the
United States, spent seven years studying the North American
market before jumping in, Birtcher says. The company has already
secured two development sites in California’s Inland Empire east
of Los Angeles; one in Oakland, Calif.; and one in Pennsylvania’s
Lehigh Valley. The four sites combined make up nearly 10 million
square feet and are expected to be valued at $700 million when the
projects are completed, according to the company.
THE LURE OF THE U.S. MARKET
The time was ripe to enter the U.S. market, according to
Goodman. “[The U.S. market] remains highly fragmented with
obvious capital constraints, making this an attractive time to
enter key logistics and industrial locations,” the company said in
a statement.
Goodman and Birtcher believe there is significant opportunity
to consolidate the U.S. industrial property segment. Even the
world’s largest industrial property developer, the combined company of ProLogis and AMB Property Management, only controls
6 percent of the U.S. industrial market, Birtcher estimates.
For this and other reasons, those involved in the deal say U.S.
industrial property is becoming increasingly attractive to foreign
investors seeking a safe location to park their growth-oriented
capital. The United States is the largest, most liquid, and p. 18
MCFA to boost lift truck
production capacity
Mitsubishi Caterpillar Forklift America Inc.
(MCFA), the Houston, Texas-based manufacturer of forklifts under the Cat Lift Trucks,
Mitsubishi Forklift Trucks, and Jungheinrich
brands, has announced that it will expand
its production capacity in Houston by more
than 40 percent.
The plan includes a new building that will
be devoted to the production, assembly,
and testing of Jungheinrich electric-pow-ered forklifts to be sold in the North
American market. Previously, all of the
German manufacturer’s trucks sold here
had been imported from Europe.
The larger facility will help MCFA respond
to the electric truck market’s continued
strong growth, said Kent Eudy, MCFA vice
president, sales and marketing, in an interview. MCFA will move all of its current electric truck production and assembly out of
the existing building and into the new one.
That move will free up space to build heavy-duty 36,000-pound pneumatic trucks that are
now manufactured by Mitsubishi Heavy
Industries in Japan. It also will allow MCFA to
manufacture Cat Lift Trucks’ and Mitsubishi
Forklift Trucks’ 6–16 ton internal combustion
models to meet the demand of customers
worldwide. MCFA currently has responsibility
for all sales in the Western Hemisphere; with
the expansion, it will also become the worldwide source for large pneumatics as well as
for any Tier 4 emissions-control products outside North America, according to Eudy.
“This diversification will ensure longevity
for this organization,” Eudy said. For example, if the economy declines and demand
slows in North America, MCFA will still have
export markets in other regions to absorb
some of that production, he explained.
MCFA expects to break ground in the first
quarter of 2013. Once the new facility is up
and running, Eudy said, “we will be manufacturing all five classes of lift trucks in
Houston. To my knowledge, nobody else
does that in one location.” ;
–Toby Gooley
