Danish pension provider, PFA, has invested around DKK 500m in a logistics property in New York, which will be built in the coming year.

It is part of the provider’s plan to increase its focus on foreign real estate investments with international partners. The property will be built in Brooklyn and will be rented out on a 15-year agreement to Amazon.

PFA real estate director, Michael Bruhn, said: “An important part of our investment strategy for 2021 is to continue to expand our foreign real estate investments, including in the United States, with a focus on sectors driven by international megatrends such as logistics and online commerce. And here this investment fits in perfectly.

“With the investment, we can gain further exposure to the significant growth in online commerce, which the corona crisis has accelerated markedly, and which has created sharply increasing demand for modern well-located logistics facilities in general and not least in New York. Therefore, we also expect that the investment will provide attractive returns for our customers.”

The upcoming property in Brooklyn will be a so-called ‘last-mile’ logistics property, which means that the property will be the last link in Amazon's distribution chain. It will be here that the smaller cars pick up the packages and drive them out to the recipient. It is estimated that within 8 km of the upcoming property live approx. 2.5 million inhabitants, and within 16 km live more than 6 million inhabitants.

“The property is being built in a great location on the waterfront in Brooklyn close to both city and infrastructure, making it particularly suitable for last-mile logistics and efficient day-to-day delivery in New York City. This is a rare opportunity to develop a state-of-the-art logistics facility in a growing area and with a solid tenant in Amazon on a long lease, ”PFA executive director – international real estate, Henrik Nøhr Poulsen, said.

PFA's investment is made in collaboration with Thor Equities, which is the manager and co-investor of the investment, and with whom PFA has collaborated on previous investments in the USA - e.g. life science offices and laboratories in New Jersey.

PFA has just entered into an agreement with Thor Equities on a so-called mandate investment with a total investment commitment of up to approx. DKK 1.2bn targeted logistics properties in the USA, where the investment in Brooklyn is the first investment within that mandate.

“Together with Thor Equities, we have in recent years made several successful investments in the United States that have made a positive contribution to the development of the real estate portfolio. And the positive experiences with Thor Equities and other partners about this type of investment have given courage to more. Therefore, in the future we will increase the focus on mandate investments internationally with partners, with whom we have good experience from previous investments, and whereby we have the opportunity to invest more directly than through fund investments,” Bruhn added.

Construction of the Brooklyn property began in the first quarter of this year, and is expected to be completed in the spring of 2022, after which Amazon will move in.

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