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Dive brief:
- Greystar, #1 in Charleston, South Carolina multi-family owner, developer and manager in the country, is now expanding its reach to infrastructure development, according to a press release shared with Multifamily Dive.
- According to the Aug. 14 statement, it has identified opportunities to enter several sectors in which it foresees long-term growth, including clean energy, data centers, transition fuels, social infrastructure, transportation and logistics facilities.
- “Our expansion into infrastructure will leverage the global scale and breadth of our team, while benefiting from the size and reach of Greystar’s real estate platform,” said Wes Fuller, Chief Investment Officer at Greystar , in the statement.
Diving knowledge:
To lead this new business, Greystar has hired industry veteran Michael Hoverman as the inaugural Chief Executive Officer of Infrastructure. Hoverman has worked in infrastructure for nearly two decades; his previous roles include more than 10 years at Los Angeles-based real estate owner CIM Group and seven years at New York City-based Macquarie Infrastructure Corp.
Hoverman intends to build an internal team of experts that will work within the company’s existing platform.
“The infrastructure business will be a perfect fit for the Greystar platform, leveraging the internal resources and scale of the broader business,” Hoverman told Multifamily Dive.
The expansion will focus on “adjacent thematic opportunities in sectors that offer long-term secular growth, such as energy transition, digitization and transport infrastructure, to support the communities and residents where Greystar is already active” , Hoverman said.
Global reach
While the new strategy will initially focus on the US, Greystar intends to leverage its broader platform and network to expand its infrastructure efforts globally in markets where it has local execution capabilities, Hoverman said .
“The new efforts will not be limited to Greystar’s existing residential projects or real estate properties,” Hoverman said.
Infrastructure capital flows have increased in recent years, boosted by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, signed by President Joe Biden in November 2021.
The act is ready to distribute $1.2 trillion in grants to infrastructure projects over the course of five years. Of that total, $454 billion has been announced so far for more than 56,000 projects across the country, according to the White House.
IIJA and other federal funding have boosted the infrastructure sector amid a slowdown in other parts of the construction industry in recent years. Infrastructure spending continues to rise in 2024 as $1.8 trillion in federal grants, loans, tax credits and other financial incentives flow into the economy, according to analysis by S&P Global, a financial information provider.
Demand for data centers and the energy projects to power them are also skyrocketing, due to the rapid growth of cloud technology and artificial intelligence. Despite the headwinds caused by high interest rates and persistent inflation, the need for new projects remains strong, according to a recent CBRE report.
“The continued convergence of real estate and infrastructure offers unique opportunities to create lasting value for Greystar partners,” said Hoverman. “Greystar’s global platform [positions] well to develop infrastructure projects that improve urban life and support sustainable growth.
