Aries Capital, a Chicago-based real estate investment firm with offices in Miami and Los Angeles, is pleased to announce the launch of its industrial net lease private equity platform with the acquisition of a light-industrial asset near Atlanta, Georgia.

The strategy was launched in Q2 2021 to invest in a diversified portfolio of operationally critical industrial and logistics assets throughout the southeast. The acquisition platform targets triple-net and sale-leaseback opportunities in the lower middle-market with long-term corporate tenants, with a focus on transaction values between $5 million and $25 million. The strategy is helmed by Aries Capital Chairman and CEO Neil Freeman as Managing Principal, alongside six-year Aries Capital veteran Brandon Perdeck as Director of Capital Markets and former Ares Management investment professional Matt Carney as Director of Acquisitions.

The acquisition marks the platform’s inaugural transaction in one of Aries’ core target markets. The newly renovated facility is 100% net-leased to a long-term tenant. The property is strategically located in one of the largest intermodal hubs in the southeast, with frontage to Interstate 75, and within four miles of Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport (the world’s busiest airport in 2021).

“This transaction highlights Aries’ institutional approach to transacting in the fragmented lower middle-market at an attractive basis with strong in-place tenants. Our longstanding relationships across the industry provide unique access to both proprietary deal flow and bespoke financing solutions, widening our opportunity set and execution capabilities relative to traditional lower middle-market buyers,” said Freeman.

Furthermore, through Aries’ joint venture with Tampa-based developer Onicx Group, Aries Capital Private Equity has a current pipeline including 1.25 million square feet of Class A industrial development opportunities in high-flow logistics markets across Florida. The joint venture closed on 83.35 acres of land in Florida’s Space Coast in Q2 2022 zoned for approximately one million square feet of industrial development. It is also set to close on approximately 25 acres in the greater Orlando MSA in Q4 2022 zoned for approximately 250,000 square feet of industrial product. 

Freeman is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Aries Capital and serves as Chairman of the Investment Committee. As of 2021, Aries Capital and affiliated entities hold equity interests in excess of $350 million in diversified commercial real estate assets nationwide. Additionally, since the firm’s inception in 1991, Aries has completed over $8 billion in debt, equity, mezzanine and tax credit financings for industrial, hospitality and multifamily properties nationwide. Freeman earned a Master of Business Administration degree from Stanford University.

Carney joined Aries in 2021 as Director of Acquisitions and a founding member of the private equity platform, based in Los Angeles. Prior to Aries Capital, he was a Private Equity Associate at Ares Management. Previously, Carney was an Investment Banking Analyst in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Perdeck has been with Aries since 2016 leading Aries’ Capital Markets platform and has been involved in over $400 million in transactions across industrial, storage, hospitality, and multifamily assets. He is primarily responsible for sourcing and structuring financing for the firm’s investment activities.