The Okast: The Industrial Evolution with Ohad Porat, Faropoint
For the second episode of The Okast, Okapi AI’s podcat, we were very happy to virtually sit down with Ohad Porat, CIO of Faropoint, for a fascinating conversation on last mile facilities, innovation in industrial real estate, industrial real estate growth and focus areas, the impact of COVID and the e-commerce boom and so much more.
Check out the below highlights from our conversation, or listen to the entire episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio or right here.
Highlights:
On Data and Industrial Real Estate
“We see more and more people are trying to utilize big data and machine learning to try to see if we can generate new ways of thinking. For instance, let’s take older deals that were done in Atlanta for the past ten years and see if we can learn something from them. If there’s a local geography that we think is more common from data. We all know it because you think you know what’s going on because you talk to people but does the data support the fact that Atlanta is a growing metro on the account of others? You can use data analytics to figure it out and create tools that are helping you in making decisions – investment decisions, leasing decisions -based on not only your analysis but also on the aggregated information over the past several years or whatever you want to look for. These are the ways that I see the majority of companies trying to recreate themselves, and the PropTech industry. It’s about trying to see how we can aid the broker to do a better job – not replacing them but aiding them. And how we can create platforms that will support decision making in leasing and acquisition.”
On Last Mile, E-Commerce and Amazon
“The need to bring stuff quicker to home – and not only quicker but more, as we know that the e-commerce business is growing – pushes this supply chain to evolve and become closer to where people actually live in order to fulfill the demand for the product. So looking at identifying this trend of the expanding need for e-commerce and shortening the lead time for goods to be received – that’s interesting on the demand side. On the supply side, and that’s kind of a more technical industrial aspect of it: We see that last mile facilities are not being built on a large scale in the country over the past cycle, since the after the recession. When you look at new construction in the country you see that developers of building bigger bulk distribution facilities, thousands of square feet and above, “bombers and boomers” is what they call them. These are also very in need and in-demand right now by the Amazons and the Walmarts, bringing all the goods to be aligned anyway.”
Read more about our podcast guest:
Faropoint is one of the fastest growing industrial owner in the US operating in multiple markets across the country such as Dallas, Atlanta, Philadelphia and Memphis. The company is targeting last mile industrial facilities through its local networks, generating off market opportunities by offering quick and creative solutions for local and institutional owners. Faropoint is a fully integrated form overseeing asset management and property management. The company has offices in Jersey City, Philadelphia and Memphis.
Mr. Porat is a Chief Investments Officer at Faropoint and serves in the company’s board of directors. Ms. Porat is responsible for the Company’s investment array, including leadership of the investment strategy, overseeing the acquisition, leasing, property management and the go-to-market strategy across multiple markets.
Under Mr. Porat’s leadership, the Company closed over 100 commercial real estate transactions totaling roughly 14M sf with over 500 tenants at total deal value exceeding $700M. Mr. Porat is renowned for his expertise in the last & middle mile logistics real estate sector. Ms. Porat holds education in the fields of economics and law. Mr. Porat is a Major in the Israeli Air Force (Reserves).
Make sure to follow Faropoint’s new podcast right here and check them out on Linkedin,
