The capital infusion will enable the company to develop, modernize and reposition cold storage supply chain facilities to meet the evolving needs of their users.
CHICAGO, IL – November 12, 2020 – As the demand for cold storage facilities intensifies, Karis Cold Storage, a Chicago-based cold storage investment and development platform, today announced that it closed on a recapitalization of the company to admit an affiliate of Winter Properties, in addition to its existing investor, a client of BLG Capital Advisors. The recapitalization—including a significant capital commitment from the investment partners structured through a programmatic joint venture—will grow Karis Cold into a leading, national cold storage investment and development platform. In addition to Winter and BLG, the platform’s operating company is owned by Karis Cold’s key principals, Jake Finley, Michael Smith and Brian Niven.
As part of the new venture, Karis Cold recently closed on two development sites in Los Angeles and Denver, the latter of which is anticipated to be a build-to-suit opportunity with one of the largest cold storage operators in the country. Karis Cold also owns an existing cold storage facility in Chicago.
With its expansive development pipeline, Karis Cold will pursue and execute a variety of deal structures within the complex cold storage sector, including state-of-the-art, build-to-suit solutions, sale leasebacks, and redevelopments of existing temperature-controlled facilities. With Winter and BLG, Karis Cold is well-positioned to address the unmet real estate and facilities needs of today’s food and beverage companies, pharmaceutical and life sciences companies, floral suppliers and third-party logistics partners that operate cold storage facilities.
“Cold storage buildings are somewhat of a blend between infrastructure assets, operating businesses and traditional industrial properties,” said Karis Cold CEO Jake Finley. “In BLG and Winter, we are thrilled to have partners who understand our unique assets, and who complement our team’s deep expertise in cold storage development and operations.”
“Karis Cold’s focus and expertise in a growing niche industrial sector with significant demand drivers, and led by a talented team, made this investment compelling to us,” said Winter Properties President Rick H. Singer. “We are committed to scaling the Karis Cold platform with our partners and look forward to long-term success in this venture.”
“We’re excited to be moving forward in partnership with Karis Cold and Winter, continuing our private equity focus on opportunistic and value-oriented commercial real estate transactions by providing growth capital to best-in-class operating platforms and management teams,” said BLG Capital Advisors Managing Director Jon Bilton.
ABOUT KARIS COLD STORAGE
Karis Cold Storage is a Chicago-based private real estate investment and development company exclusively focused on the cold storage industry. Karis Cold invests in and develops properties across the U.S. with a platform covering the entire spectrum of cold storage development, including build-to-suit solutions, sale leaseback financing, and redevelopment of existing facilities. For more information, please visit https://www.kariscoldstorageweb.local/.
ABOUT BLG CAPITAL ADVISORS
Founded in 2013, BLG Capital Advisors is a private markets investment firm focused on lower middle-market and middle-market private equity in buyout, growth and real estate strategies. BLG is headquartered in Chicago and the firm invests long-term growth capital in a variety of structures that is typically oriented around scalable real estate operating companies and platforms both domestically and abroad. For more information, please visit https://www.blgcap.com/.
ABOUT WINTER PROPERTIES
Winter Properties, a related investment business of Standard Industries, is a vertically integrated real estate investment, management and development company. For more than a century, Winter has built a reputation as a first-class owner, operator, developer and investor, based in New York City. Winter focuses on strategic investments and ventures throughout major urban markets in the U.S. and globally, targeting attractive, risk-adjusted returns through both asset- and entity-level investments. For more information, please visit https://www.winter.com/.
