In this episode of Billionaire Brain Trust, host Steve Woodruff (joined by a second interviewer) sits down with Brad O'Halloran, managing principal of Brennan Investment Group, to discuss the firm’s pure‑play industrial real estate strategy. Brennan was founded in 2010 by Michael Brennan, a former co‑founder of a large industrial REIT, and has grown to own and operate about 57 million square feet across 28 states, with 17 offices and roughly $7 billion in assets under management. The company has monetized $3.8 billion to date and reports an average project IRR of 39.4%, covering a range of industrial assets from single‑tenant net‑leases to ground‑up builds and specialty situations. Brad explains why the firm concentrates exclusively on industrial: deep local expertise, the sector’s steady, “vanilla” nature that has become a hot topic, and the belief that commercial real estate is fundamentally local. He highlights macro trends fueling demand—reshoring of manufacturing, post‑COVID supply‑chain disruptions, and higher inventory buffers—pointing to the U.S.–Mexico border, especially Laredo, Texas, as a current development hotspot tied to Monterrey’s reshoring activity. The conversation also covers opportunistic strategies for 2024, such as acquiring distressed or “stress‑type” projects (e.g., half‑finished industrial builds) and converting under‑utilized office properties into industrial facilities, exemplified by a recent 600,000‑sq‑ft office purchase in the Chicago metro area that will be repurposed. Throughout, Brad conveys confidence in industrial’s growth prospects and the firm’s ability to capitalize on evolving market dynamics.
Chapters
Welcome to Billionaire Brain Trust, our newest YouTube series that will take you behind the scenes into candid conversations with billionaires and those who work with them. Hosted by Steve Woodruff, who brings a unique perspective as a family office advisor, Billionaire Brain Trust will feature exclusive interviews with billionaires and the key players in their organizations, offering viewers a rare glimpse into their stories, decision-making frameworks, and what they are excited about right now. Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur, a seasoned investor, or simply curious about the world of the ultra-wealthy, Billionaire Brain Trust will help you think bigger and achieve more.
We're at day 3 of the Family Office Club Super Summit in New York City. I'm with Brad, uh, Brennan, uh, Brennan Investment Group.
Yes, Brennan Investment Group.
And Brennan, yeah, tell us a little bit about Brennan. I think you guys have a really interesting story.
I'm one of the managing principals at Brennan Investment Group. Brennan was started in 2010 by Michael Brennan. Who has been a long— he was the co-founder of one of the largest industrial REITs in the country, took it public, and then left in 2008. He had a 2-year non-compete and then started Brandon Investment Group. We purchased our first building. We're only in industrial real estate. We purchased it in 2010, and today we have about 57 million square feet that we own and operate. We're in 28 states. We've got 17 offices around the country. Our assets under management are about $7 billion. During that period of time, from day one till today, we've monetized about $3.8 billion. And our average project internal rate of return over that entire period is 39.4%. We are in all types of industrial real estate. We do single tenant net lease, we do value add, We do ground-up, we do built-to-suits, we do corporate real estate, and we do specialty situations.
Yeah, great. That was thorough. Why do you like industrial so much? And we love industrial. We think it's a great asset class and we think that there's an incredible opportunity. But I'd love to hear from you. You guys only do industrial.
Yes.
And why is that?
Well, we, we look at it as sort of a stick-to-your-knitting type of thing. We focus in that market, all of the professionals we have in our various offices are longtime industrial real estate experts. So they know those markets. We think that— we feel that all real estate, especially commercial, in this case industrial, is local. So you need to be on the ground, know what they're doing, and basically can find the opportunities that are out there. We think there's a lot of opportunities. Industrial has a very steady history. It's, you know, when I first started in 2010 with Brennan Investment Group, basically, you know, we were just looked at kind of as vanilla, if you will. Everyone said, well, you know, industrial, it's kind of boring. Yeah, that's kind of good. And sure, over this period of time, maybe 5 years ago, we became the hot topic. Yeah, that's right. Yeah.
Can you speak to that as well? I mean, one trend that we see is, and it's probably the main reason that we like industrial so much right now, is the reshoring of jobs back to the United States, reshoring of manufacturing. We also see supply chain disruption that we saw during COVID Companies want higher inventory and better distribution than they had to worry about. So they used to be just-in-time. Now it's we better have enough or else it could be a real threat to our business. Can you speak? Are you seeing those trends and maybe where are you seeing it? Are you geographically seeing it more in certain places?
I would say, you know, it's a question that started— the answer started quite a while ago before COVID because what started to happen was manufacturers that were overseas, specifically in China, basically started to— China started to lose some of their labor advantage because of the introduction of technology and robotics into the process. So that started to prompt manufacturing to say, hey, you know, with some of the challenges from a standpoint of political challenges, from a standpoint of getting it here, and this was pre-COVID. So we started to see that start to happen with American and some foreign companies after COVID and with the supply chain issues that amplified that move here. One of the hottest areas right now in the country from a standpoint of industrial development, and that's ground-up development, is actually on the border between New Mexico, Mexico, and the United States. Okay. And that, you know, we're building two projects right now in Laredo, Texas. And it's because Monterrey has now already was, was reshoring a number of manufacturers, assemblers and distributors that are mostly all from the Asian Pacific Rim. And so they're out of China, they're out of Korea, they're out of Malaysia, and they're out of Well, they're from that area, I guess. Oh, they're out of Taiwan. And what they're doing is they're relocating there and then shipping the United States. Well, they need to ship across the border. There's customs issues with respect to that. Sure. And then they want to be able to not just distribute to like straight to Chicago. They want to distribute the many, many areas that they need their products to go to. So it is just on fire in Laredo, Texas. But we're seeing it all over the country where there's not a, you know, we have thousands of tenants and there's not a tenant that's not out there that's introducing other types of technologies and other types of robotics and other types of efficiencies into the process.
Yeah.
So for us, those are opportunities.
Yeah, that's great. I believe that our trade with Mexico just exceeded our trade with China very recently.
And that's what drove that.
That makes that number. Yeah. Great. Well, we appreciate that. Anything else you're looking for in really 2024 right now that you think might be a bit of a shift?
Yeah, well, we're seeing a lot of opportunity right now and where we're very interested is in things that we believe could be almost stress-type situations where we're able to go in and fix whatever the stress It could be a local developer that basically is half done with an industrial building.
Yeah.
And now has issues from a financial standpoint. We can come in and pick up that building. I think as I— we were talking earlier, you know, we just— there's a lot of stress in office way beyond any other asset category, right?
Yeah, of course.
Commercial real estate. We're looking at— we just purchased a 600,000 square foot office building on 40 acres in a prime market of the Chicago metropolitan area. And with the intent of taking the office down and then building industrial real estate because our ability to buy the note on that was, you know, brought us to a cost basis to significantly lessen if we bought green property. Yeah, we can't buy from this type of property in that type of Yeah.
So are you buying for almost the cost of the lands, or is it—
In this case, we were buying it cheaper than the cost of industrial real estate in that market.
Yeah.
To us. Right.
Are you tearing down the building or you're keeping the existing building converted?
Got it. Yeah. Unfortunately. Yeah. But, you know, that's, that's the shift.
Yes, that's right.
Same type of shift in, you know, corporate real estate where corporations are cutting back or saying we don't need as many facilities. We want to be there to take advantage of those opportunities because we know how to retenant those. We know how to maybe repurpose those in a way. And if it's in the right market, that's an opportunity for us. And then it's an opportunity for our investors.
Yeah, that's great. Well, Brad, we appreciate the time. Appreciate your expertise and sharing it with us.
