VRS, LaSalle form $575m industrial JV

LaSalle Investment Management and the Virginia Retirement System have formed a $575 million joint venture to invest in U.S. industrial development. The $65 billion retirement system has committed $200 million to the joint venture.

According to Julie Manning, portfolio manager with LaSalle, the venture will focus on investment opportunities to develop and lease large, modern distribution buildings in major population centers with strong transportation infrastructure, and will look to own the assets long term.

The availability rate for U.S. industrial assets dropped to 10.8 percent by the end of June 2014, down from 11.9 percent a year earlier, and could drop below its long-term average of 10.0 percent in 2015, according to CBRE. The dropping availability has coincided with a near-record pace for transaction volume in 2014, with industrial sales on pace to reach $61 billion by year’s end, just shy of the $61.7 billion high-water mark set in 2007, according