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Cabot Properties (hereinafter “Cabot”), a Boston-based fund management company specializing in logistics, has opened an office in Tokyo to accelerate its business development in the Asia-Pacific region. This will be the company’s second office opening in the Asia-Pacific region, following its opening in Sydney in 2020, where it has developed and acquired logistics facilities worth over US$185 million.

The company has appointed Yu Nishimura (based in Tokyo) as head of its domestic business in Japan. Nishimura has extensive real estate industry experience and is currently based in Tokyo. Nishimura worked in real estate investment banking at Citigroup Securities Japan for 14 years, most recently as head of the real estate finance business, where he led a number of award-winning real estate financing transactions. Prior to Citigroup Securities, Nishimura worked at Morgan Stanley Securities, Credit Suisse Securities, the Bank of Japan and PwC. Nishimura will be responsible for driving Cabot’s investment activities in Japan.

“We are pleased to be able to advance Cabot’s global business development in Japan, one of the world’s leading logistics real estate markets,” said Franz Colloredo-Mansfeld, CEO of Cabot. The Tokyo office will be the company’s fourth global base, joining London, Amsterdam and Sydney, in addition to its five bases in North America.

Sally Box, Managing Director and Head of Asia Pacific at Cabot, said, “Cabot has been carefully preparing to enter Japan for several years, having visited Japan many times over the past decade and building strong relationships with domestic institutional investors. As a result, we are convinced that Japan has significant investment potential. The Japanese economy is strong and there is a high level of consumer concentration, but there is a shortage of advanced logistics facilities to support the growth of e-commerce. In that sense, we believe that Japan checks all of the boxes we are looking for as we expand our investment strategy into new markets.”

Nishimura joined Cabot due to the company’s strong relationships with domestic investors and clear investment strategy. Nishimura commented, “There is clearly a chronic shortage of advanced logistics facilities in Japan, including in major cities such as the Tokyo and Osaka areas where Cabot is focused. Cabot has been managing logistics real estate around the world based on an investment philosophy that captures market cycles. I believe there is great potential to replicate Cabot’s efforts in the Japanese logistics market.”

Nishimura added, “We will mainly target the greater Tokyo and Osaka areas, but we will also consider investing in other cities if they meet our investment criteria of ‘medium-sized logistics facilities in excellent locations within each region.’ We will also work on development projects as well as completed properties.”

Founded in 1986, Cabot is a pioneer in providing institutional investors with investment opportunities in industrial real estate. Cabot has invested in logistics facilities totaling more than US$15 billion to date, and has built a track record of managing a portfolio of more than 4,200 cumulative tenants, 1,600 properties, and more than 21 million square meters (230 million square feet).