BH Properties Eyes $250M in Acquisitions

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LOS ANGELES-Privately held BH Properties, following $100 million of investments in 2006, has $250 million in hand to invest in new properties throughout the US by the end of 2007. With the combination of its existing $350 million of holdings and the additional investments this year, the Los Angeles-based company aims to meet its growth target of $600 million in holdings by the end of 2007.

The company, which specializes in value-added deals, will be looking for opportunities in retail, office and warehouse/industrial properties in targeted regional markets, according to Steve Gozini, president of BH. Gozini says that some of the company’s most profitable investments are properties that “do not meet the criteria for acquisition by large institutional investors or individual investors.”

In addition to further investments in markets where it was already established, BH entered new regions in 2006, making investments in North Carolina, Virginia and Idaho. The company plans to continue focusing on acquisitions in Georgia, Texas, North Carolina and Virginia, all of them areas that BH has identified as markets with huge potential.

Gozini notes that the company also opened a new office in Colorado in 2006 with a director of acquisitions headquartered in Denver. BH also plans to recruit two more execs in 2007 to serve as directors of asset management for its investments in the Southeast.

In addition to the markets named by Gozini, EVP and general counsel Steve Jaffe of BH lists the company’s preferred markets as Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Utah and Washington.

Among the company’s 2006 industrial acquisitions were a 665,000-sf warehouse and distribution center in El Paso, a 375,000-sf property in El Paso and a 209,000-sf building in McAllen, TX.

The company’s retail investments included a 55,552-sf site in Greenville, two former Winn-Dixie anchored retail properties in Georgia and Florida and a 58,000-sf property in Idaho. Its office acquisitions included a 63,000-sf class A building in Glen Allen, VA and a 118,000-sf corporate office building in Provo, UT.