PREP launches industrial real estate investment strategy under Salata and Brandt’s leadership
Cleveland, Ohio – August 19, 2024 – Provider Real Estate Partners, LLC (“PREP”, “Company”), a dedicated real estate fund management and advisory firm, is pleased to announce the appointments of Chris Salata and Keith Brandt as Partners and Co-Presidents of the Company’s newly created Industrial vertical.
Both 20+ year real estate development veterans and members of the Midwest Commercial Real Estate Hall of Fame, Mr. Salata and Mr. Brandt most recently served as senior executives at Industrial Commercial Properties LLC (“ICP”) in Cleveland, Ohio. At ICP, they played key roles in growing and optimizing the company’s real estate assets into one of the largest privately held industrial and commercial portfolios in the Midwest, which includes over 150 properties totaling more than 46MM square feet per ICP’s website. Mr. Salata served as ICP’s Chief Operating Officer since 2018, and Mr. Brandt served as Executive Vice President, spearheading a national initiative to identify and repurpose former regional malls and retail properties.
“We are thrilled to add Chris and Keith as Partners to our talented team,” said Joe Boehm III, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of PREP. “They are both well-respected in the commercial real estate community and bring exceptional experience and successful track records to our firm. Their backgrounds and versatile skill sets will allow them to add value across multiple facets of our existing and new strategies,” continued Boehm.
PREP was founded in 2020 by Mr. Boehm III and the Company’s Chief Financial Officer, Bob O’Brien, both long-time senior executives of Forest City Realty Trust. The Company commenced operations with four original partners, as Bill Ross and Joe Boehm IV joined PREP as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Investment Officer, respectively. PREP launched its first investment fund in 2021 focused on acquiring healthcare real estate, and since then has purchased or served as an advisor on over $100 million of stabilized medical outpatient building and ambulatory surgery center acquisitions across the country. PREP is also supported by a highly experienced and accomplished Board of Advisors, composed of Art Anton, Wayne Chambless, David Coury, Fred DiSanto, Lou Joseph, and James Ratner.
“Keith and I are extremely excited to join the PREP team,” noted Mr. Salata. “We believe the industrial redevelopment strategy that we have implemented successfully aligns strongly with PREP’s focus on identifying and executing commercial real estate investment strategies where the Company has a competitive edge to drive strong risk-adjusted returns for its partners. Like healthcare, industrial real estate benefits from long-term secular tailwinds that we believe make it an attractive sector for capital deployment.”
Prior to his time at ICP, Mr. Salata served as senior vice president of Development at DDR Corp. (DDR), where he oversaw national development and redevelopment initiatives. Before DDR, Mr. Salata was a principal at Fairmount Properties where he served as Chief Investment Officer and General Counsel. During his time there, Mr. Salata was the lead project executive for Pinecrest, a $240MM mixed-use development project in Orange Village, Ohio. Mr. Salata started his career as an attorney at McDonald Hopkins LLC in Cleveland, Ohio, where his practice areas included real estate, finance and corporate mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Salata holds a B.S. from the University of Notre Dame and a J.D. from Case Western Reserve University School of Law.
Prior to his time at ICP, Mr. Brandt served as the Managing Director and Market Leader for CBRE’s Cleveland and Akron offices. He led a team of 100+ associates across all business lines including advisory, capital markets, property management, and project management. Under his leadership the CBRE office experienced record growth of over 54% in top line revenue. Before CBRE, Mr. Brandt was the Senior Vice President of Retail, Office and Residential Leasing and Asset Management at Brookfield Asset Management, which acquired Forest City Realty Trust. During his 22 years at Forest City, Mr. Brandt led the Retail leasing platform overseeing all retail initiatives for a portfolio valued at $4B. Mr. Brandt holds a Bachelor of Engineering and Biomedical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University.
