Brookfield Asset Management has agreed to acquire a minority interest in American Real Estate Partners, bringing together Brookfield’s global real estate, infrastructure and power capabilities with AREP’s rapidly expanding data center development platform.
Financial terms of the investment were not disclosed. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter, subject to customary conditions.
AREP is an institutional real estate fund manager and developer that has deployed or committed more than $30 billion across major U.S. markets.
The company has acquired more than 40 million square feet of Class A real estate and is currently developing more than 32 million square feet of hyperscale data centers around the country.
AREP also operates across residential, industrial and office real estate, with an integrated platform spanning acquisitions, development, leasing and asset management.
Brookfield manages more than $1 trillion across infrastructure, energy, private equity, real estate and credit.
The partnership is particularly focused on the large amount of physical infrastructure required to support artificial intelligence and cloud computing.
Data center development increasingly depends not only on real estate but also on access to electricity, power-generation infrastructure and large amounts of capital, areas where Brookfield has substantial existing capabilities.
The investment will support AREP’s continued expansion across its core markets and asset classes while linking its development capabilities to Brookfield’s global investment platform.
Rothschild & Co served as exclusive financial advisor to AREP.
KEY QUOTES:
“Over the past several years, we have built AREP into a differentiated real estate investment and data center development platform, and we are excited to welcome Brookfield as a partner.”
Brian Katz, Co-Founder and President of American Real Estate Partners
“We are in the early stages of a multi-decade buildout of physical infrastructure required for AI.”
“AREP is a strong, synergistic partner with institutional quality data center development capabilities and similar goals across the digital and power sectors.”
Ben Brown, Co-President of Brookfield’s Real Estate Group
