Drew Fung and Thanh Bui
Drew Fung and Thanh Bui
Head of Debt Investment Group; Managing Director at Clarion Partners
Amid market challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Clarion Partners seized new opportunities within the red-hot industrial sector.
The lender originated $570 million in calendar year 2021 with more than 70 percent of its volume concentrated in industrial deals. Clarion, which has always been an active investor in the debt and equity side of industrial properties, capitalized on numerous lending opportunities in the sector, providing subordinate debt at attractive risk-adjusted spreads.
“There’s a certainty and a confidence that folks have with us because they know that the firm’s pretty familiar with the property type,” Drew Fung said of Clarion’s strong foundation in the industrial sector. “It helps to not be sort of a johnny-come-lately to the sector where you have to kind of learn everything now that it’s popular.”
Clarion’s expertise with industrial paid dividends in February 2022 when it supplied a $415 million mezzanine loan as part of a package to refinance a portion of Blackstone’s Cubic/Colony industrial portfolio comprising 110 properties totaling 15.7 million square feet in 15 markets. The transaction closed in less than three weeks.
Fung and Thanh Bui have been business partners since the late 1990s and have overseen Clarion’s debt activity for the last 10 years. The duo specializes in originating and structuring subordinate debt investments for core, value-add and development properties from mezzanine loans, B-notes and preferred equity interests.
Clarion was also active with multifamily transactions during the past year, supplying mezzanine capital for ground-up developments in high-growth markets like Memphis; Mesa, Ariz.; and San Bernardino, Calif. The firm has also laid a foundation to target other property sectors with risk-adjusted returns including self-storage, senior housing and single-family rental.
“2021 was where we broadened our horizons a bit,” Fung said of the year. “You always have to stay fresh and look forward for new ideas.” —A.C.
