Val Achtemeier, Barbara Perrier and Darla Longo

This is not the first rodeo for the L.A.-based Val Achtemeier, Barbara Perrier or Darla Longo. Each has decades of experience at the top of the market. 

“The interest rate environment is not helping too much,” Perrier said of this latest downturn. “We’ve had a lot of good years, and so having some ups and downs is part of the business when you’ve done it as long as we have. But it was definitely a lot more fun before.” 

The deals close less frequently — and with less reliability — but they are happening. Perrier and Longo, who are sisters, focus primarily on the still strong industrial market. Over the past 18 months they have closed more than 100 deals totaling roughly $9.3 billion.

“The problem is that there is so much uncertainty in the market, so with the uncertainty people aren’t sure how to price things,” Perrier said. 

That is largely due to the rocketship rise of the fundamentals underneath industrial properties during the pandemic. Demand rose sharply, and so did rents. The sector became one of the surest investments in commercial real estate. It still is, but the fundamentals are not as strong as during the pandemic. 

Instead, Perrier said growth is more in line with 2018 to 2020. That was a strong period that investors today should in time grow more comfortable using as a comparable, she added. 

Again, though, deals are getting done. Achtemeier works on the equity and debt side, often in close conjunction with Perrier and Longo’s brokering. Largely gone are the days of the titanic trades, she said (though in May Achtemeier did close $530 million in construction financing for a Virginia data center project). 

“The sweet spot for a lot of transactions now is more the $30 million to $100 million range,” she said, adding that there is particular activity in data centers and industrial properties with financing from debt funds and life insurance companies.

In total, Achtemeier and her team have done $2.7 billion in direct debt and financing transactions over the past 18 months. In September, she, Longo and Perrier also became the first all-female group to receive the Spirit of Life Award for their philanthropy from cancer treatment center City of Hope’s Los Angeles Real Estate and Construction Council.