Listen to this articleChesapeake Real Estate Group LLC (CREG), a Hanover-based commercial real estate development company that has completed more than 45 projects totaling more than 15 million square feet, with $1.5 billion in value since 2004, Thursday announced the formation of a new long-term investment platform.
In addition to development, CREG will now acquire industrial, flex/office, single-story commercial office and retail assets. In a concurrent move, CREG appointed Gene Parker, a commercial real estate veteran with more than 30 years of experience, as president. CREG founder, Managing Partner and Principal Jim Lighthizer will transition to CEO.
Over the next five years, CREG intends to grow their portfolio of commercial real estate assets in the mid-Atlantic region, the company said. The group is targeting acquisitions between $3 million and $20 million with at least 50 percent occupancy, with an emphasis on value-add properties below replacement cost.
The prime spot for acquisitions is properties located within a 90-minute drive of Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, according to the company. Current CREG principals have formed a joint venture with a longtime partner Rick Wuest, CEO of Thompson Creek Window Company, who has joined the team as a major investor and real estate adviser. This new JV has teamed up with friends and family private equity to recently acquire three properties totaling more than $20 million.
Parker was with Continental Realty Corporation for 26 years, serving as president for 10 of those years. He has been recruited to serve as a C-Suite executive for several commercial real estate firms in the Baltimore Washington area before joining CREG and was directly involved with raising more than $500 million in private equity over the past dozen years.