Bridge Industrial, a manager focused on the industrial property sector, has recruited a senior executive to lead a European expansion plan, PERE can reveal.
The Chicago-based firm has appointed Charles Baigler as head of Europe with the intention of expanding beyond its current operation in the UK, across mainland Europe. He starts in the role in April.
Baigler joins from Pictet Group where he worked for more than four years in the role of head of direct real estate, private equity real estate group. He previously also worked in investment management roles at CBRE Investment Management and Rockspring Property Investment Managers, now part of Patrizia.
At Bridge, Baigler is understood to have been charged with growing the firm’s European business beyond its operation in the UK where it currently has six assets and sites in the southeast of the country managed by a small headcount.
His switch from a traditional private fund manager to a manager with operating capabilities is in line with increasing appetite for sector specialism among institutional investors as a preferred route for deploying capital into private real estate.
One person with knowledge of the appointment, who would not be named, told PERE how the move highlighted “the trend that more and more capital sources are now disintermediating generalist investment managers in favor of vertically-integrated sector specialist managers who are able to offer genuine in-house operating expertise.” The person added the trend is likely to result in a reduction of traditional private real estate funds and an increase in alternative vehicle structures.
“This invariably means moving away from commingled funds to clubs, separate accounts, programmatic JVs.”
Bridge was formed in 2000. Since then it has completed transactions relating to 273 properties, comprising approximately 74 million square feet and valued at $15.8 billion, according to its marketing materials.
The firm is understood to typically fund its investments via separate accounts and club structures with institutional investors.
While capital raising for such vehicles is hard to track, according to PERE research in the first three-quarters of last year traditional logistics private real estate funds attracted $7.52 billion of equity, second among sector-specific fundraising totals only to residential.
Baigler has been a columnist for PERE, writing on topics including the impact on the private real estate sector of UK politics and the mentality around taking write-downs.
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