UPP Forms Strategic Partnership with WPT Capital Advisors to Expand US Logistics Exposure
- New partnership marks UPP's first U.S. strategy focused on investing in warehouse and distribution facilities in high-growth industrial markets, targeting long-term value creation for members
University Pension Plan (“UPP”) is pleased to announce a strategic partnership with WPT Capital Advisors (“WPT”), a leading U.S. industrial real estate sector specialist. The joint venture will pursue a disciplined investment strategy, aligned with UPP’s long-term risk and return objectives, focused on acquiring and developing warehouse and logistics properties across major U.S. supply-chain and distribution hubs. The financial terms of UPP’s commitment are undisclosed.
The partnership reinforces the Plan’s commitment to portfolio stability, providing access to inflation-protected investments that will deliver long-term pension growth and value to its members. It also marks a significant step in diversifying and expanding UPP’s real estate portfolio in a target sector, in line with its diversification goals.
“We are delighted to partner with WPT, a vertically-integrated sector specialist focused on the acquisition, development and management of industrial properties in the U.S.,” said Peter Martin Larsen, Senior Managing Director, Head of Private Markets at UPP. “This partnership builds UPP’s portfolio in warehouse and logistics assets, reflecting our commitment to strategic partnerships that can generate resilient, long-term benefits for our members. WPT’s proven track record, coupled with their deep market expertise, positions us to capitalize on strong market fundamentals and advance an important part of our investment strategy.”
This collaboration further strengthens UPP’s growing real estate platform, which already includes investments in Canadian residential development and housing supply solutions. By targeting assets with inflation-protected characteristics and pursuing a globally diversified portfolio, UPP continues to balance risk, capture opportunities, and generate reliable, long-term returns to protect members’ pensions.
About UPP
University Pension Plan Ontario (UPP) is a jointly sponsored defined benefit pension open to all Ontario university sector employers and employees. UPP manages $12.8 billion in pension assets and proudly serves over 41,000 members across five universities and 14 sector organizations. The plan invests to deliver secure, stable pension benefits for members today and for generations to come. For more information, please visit myupp.ca and follow UPP on LinkedIn.
I'm going to keep it short and sweet today and focus on UPP's latest partnership with WPT Capital Advisors.
Back in March, JLL Capital Markets closed the sale of Elizabeth Creek Gateway, a two-building industrial facility comprising of 1.1M SF of Class A industrial product trades hands in Dallas-Fort Worth to WPT Capital Advisors:
DALLAS, Mar. 14, 2025 – JLL Capital Markets announced today the sale of Elizabeth Creek Gateway Buildings D & E, two Class A industrial buildings totaling 1,106,064 square feet within the highly sought-after AllianceTexas master-planned project in the Dallas-Fort Worth MSA.
JLL represented the seller in the transaction, and an affiliate of WPT Capital Advisors acquired the property.
Completed in 2021, the two cross-dock facilities feature 36-foot clear heights, ESFR sprinkler systems, 60-foot staging bays and ample car and trailer parking. The park is 100% leased to three tenants from diverse industries including telecommunications, government services and communications technology.
Located at 16000 and 15716 Wolff Crossing, the property offers direct access to State Highway 114 and is within a 10-minute drive of I-35W and State Highways 287, 170 and 37. Elizabeth Creek Gateway’s prime position just three miles north of Perot Field Fort Worth Alliance Airport and 20 miles from both Dallas Fort Worth International and Fort Worth Meacham International airports enhances its logistical appeal. Additionally, the property's location within the Texas Triangle – encompassing Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio – allows tenants to reach over 25 million people within hours.
The JLL Capital Markets Investment Sales and Advisory team was led by Industrial Group Co-Head and Senior Managing Director Trent Agnew, Senior Director Tom Weber, Director Pauli Kerr and Analyst Andrew Griffin.
“Elizabeth Creek Gateway represented a rare opportunity to acquire newer vintage, state-of-the-art product with scale within the highly sought-after AllianceTexas submarket,” said Agnew. "Combined with its strategic location, institutional-quality specifications and strong tenant roster, this opportunity attracted substantial investor interest.”
JLL Capital Markets is a full-service global provider of capital solutions for real estate investors and occupiers. The firm's in-depth local market and global investor knowledge delivers the best-in-class solutions for clients — whether investment sales and advisory, debt advisory, equity advisory or a recapitalization. The firm has more than 3,000 Capital Markets specialists worldwide with offices in nearly 50 countries.
For more news, videos and research resources, please visit JLL’s newsroom.
About JLL
For over 200 years, JLL (NYSE: JLL), a leading global commercial real estate and investment management company, has helped clients buy, build, occupy, manage and invest in a variety of commercial, industrial, hotel, residential and retail properties. A Fortune 500® company with annual revenue of $23.4 billion and operations in over 80 countries around the world, our more than 112,000 employees bring the power of a global platform combined with local expertise. Driven by our purpose to shape the future of real estate for a better world, we help our clients, people and communities SEE A BRIGHTER WAYSM. JLL is the brand name, and a registered trademark, of Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated. For further information, visit jll.com.
About WPT Capital Advisors
WPT Capital Advisors, LLC (“WPT”) is a real estate development and investment management firm focused on the U.S. industrial warehouse and distribution sector. WPT operates a fully integrated management platform with a long history in all facets of industrial real estate, investing across diverse strategies through both public and private investment vehicles. Headquartered in Minneapolis, MN with offices in California, Colorado and New Jersey, WPT currently manages approximately US$3 billion of assets on behalf of various global investment partners.
And a year ago, WPT Capital Advisors paid $133M for Bay Area portfolio:
JLL Income Property Trust has sold Pinole Point Distribution Center, a three-building industrial park in Richmond, Calif., for $132.5 million. WPT Capital Advisors acquired the property using an $85 million acquisition loan from PCCP.
Divesting from this Bay Area property is another example of the company’s long-term strategy of recycling capital at opportunistic points across real estate market cycles. The deal netted a 50 percent gain for JLL Income Property Trust, which acquired Pinole Point in 2016.
Located at 6000, 6015 and 6025 Giant Road, the three warehouses total 518,000 square feet. The properties provide tenants access to critical transportation infrastructure, including major interstate highways, the Port of Oakland, Oakland International Airport, and the densely populated San Francisco Bay Area, where modern warehouse facilities have historically been in short supply.
The company said that selling out of its industrial portfolio’s largest vacancy freed up more than $125 million to use during the early stages of a new market cycle for core real estate. The runup in valuations across the warehouse property sector was “highly accretive” to its portfolio’s performance.
Why did I share these articles with you? Because I wanted to understand who WPT Capital Advisors (WPT Capital) is and why UPP chose them to form a strategic partnership to invest in logistics properties in the United States.
You can view all their properties here but the key thing is that WPT Capital is aligned with UPP's values and commitment to sustainable investing and it's managing a perfect amount of capital where UPP can be a meaningful long term partner.
Remember the big pension funds can pick and choose very large partners but smaller mid-sized pension plans like UPP prefer mid-sized partners where they can have a more meaningful relationship and secure meaningful co-investments and/ or joint ventures to reduce fee drag.
And even though financial details weren't disclosed, I am willing to bet UPP made a significant commitment to fund this partnership (my best guess is roughly $300 million).
But wait, isn't US logistics expensive? Yes and no, it depends on the markets and WPT Capital's focus offers UPP a way to gain exposure in markets which are underserved.
As far as inflation protection, real estate and infrastructure assets offer embedded protection in their contracts/ leases so that too appeals to UPP as it wants to mitigate this risk.
Go back to read my comment where UPP’s CEO Barbara Zvan discussed the plan's shift to inflation-proof and climate assets (click here to read it).
More recently, Barb discussed building a pension plan from scratch (read my comment here).
Below, CEO Barbara Zvan explains how the University Pension Plan Ontario was
designed to be green “from the get-go”, while maintaining a laser focus on value creation.
Most pension plan CEOs have faced the challenge of integrating ESG factors into their
investment plans and business models, but Zvan highlights how UPP leveraged its
opportunity to build them into the foundations.
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