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New Deal Offering: Clovis, CA
By Kristina C. Chang
• September 9, 2025
We are pleased to announce that we have placed 3375 Peach Ave, a 7.31 acre industrial outdoor storage (IOS) facility in Clovis, California, under contract. The property features an office building and a warehouse/shop totaling approx. 30,000 square feet. The purchase price is $8.35 million (total anticipated cost is $8.71 million) and we are raising… -
Why Family Offices Win in Uncertain Times
By Kristina C. Chang
• August 19, 2025
When markets get messy, something surprising happens: family businesses often outperform the giants. While institutions freeze or overanalyze (no one wants to stick their neck out there when the safe choice is to do nothing!), family-owned firms keep moving — thinking in decades, not quarters. Last week we toured an industrial outdoor storage (IOS) property on Thursday… -
New Deal Offering: Sacramento, CA
By Kristina C. Chang
• July 28, 2025
We are pleased to announce that we have placed 1441 Richards Blvd, a two building IOS/automotive property in Sacramento, California, under contract. The purchase price is $5.25 million (total anticipated project cost is $6.02 million), and we are raising $2.7 million in LP equity. We expect to close in mid-September. Given the deal’s compelling return… -
When Diligence Comes Due: The Discipline to Walk Away
By Kristina C. Chang
• July 21, 2025
Industrial Outdoor Storage (IOS) has been gaining attention lately as investors hunt for yield in overlooked corners of the industrial sector. But despite the buzz, IOS is still far from institutionalized — and that has real implications for how deals get done, and how they can fall apart. Unlike traditional industrial buildings or multifamily assets,… -
Independent Thinking in a Noisy Market
By Kristina C. Chang
• June 30, 2025
A friend sent me Seth Klarman’s Margin of Safety 16 years ago and it had a profound impact on how I think about investing, downside protection, and identifying value investing opportunities. Such a profound impact that it came up in conversation last week and prompted me to re-skim. Two quotes struck me: As an industrial real estate… -
Yield Over Hype
By Kristina C. Chang
• June 19, 2025
Westlake is a fully vertically integrated real estate owner-operator. That’s the “what” but not the “why”. I’ve talked a lot about the “why” – it’s our family values and being stewards within our family and community. What we haven’t talked as much about is the “how.” As a family office, that’s where we differentiate ourselves… -
Our Roots: Lessons from Okinawa
By Kristina C. Chang
• April 22, 2025
Family legacy lies at the core of what makes a family business special. It is building something tangible that financially supports the family and doing it with the people you love the most. This week I had the chance to visit the island my mom grew up on and to learn more about her family’s… -
From Parcel to Platform: How AI is Reshaping Real Estate Investment
By Kristina C. Chang
• March 28, 2025
Yesterday, I attended the annual USD Real Estate Conference. As with nearly every event I’ve been to this past year, AI was front and center. While real estate has traditionally been slow to embrace new technology, we’re now seeing AI meaningfully reshape how we invest and operate. One of the benefits of our diversified investment… -
Industrial Outdoor Storage: A Rising Asset Class in Modern Logistics
By Kristina C. Chang
• March 12, 2025
We are pleased to have been featured in Thesis Driven – Brad Hargreaves’ widely regarded industry publication, and thought we’d share a summary of our commentary on Industrial Outdoor Storage. Once overlooked in favor of traditional warehouses, IOS has emerged as a critical component of modern logistics real estate. With a market size of $200 billion and… -
Institutionalizing A Family Legacy
By Kristina C. Chang
• February 10, 2025
It’s often said that the job of a third generation family business is to institutionalize the business. From a business perspective this means raising our quality standards and raising outside capital for all our new deals to increase assets under management in a smart and focused manner. From a family management perspective, it means formalizing… -
IOS: A Rising Asset Class
By Kristina C. Chang
• January 21, 2025
We are pleased to have been featured in Thesis Driven – Brad Hargreaves’ widely regarded industry publication, and thought we’d share a summary of our commentary on Industrial Outdoor Storage. Once overlooked in favor of traditional warehouses, IOS has emerged as a critical component of modern logistics real estate. With a market size of $200… -
New Sonoma Development Completed
By Kristina C. Chang
• December 16, 2024
I am excited to announce the successful completion of our self-storage development in Sonoma, CA with Frontera Real Estate Investments. This project has been especially rewarding to open as it is adjacent to our existing, highly successful facility in the area. The new site spans 3.94 acres and provides 72,450 square feet of storage space… -
Market Selection Multifamily Investment
By Kristina C. Chang
• December 9, 2024
As we reach year end, we are gearing up for an active 2025 for acquisitions and development. This has us honing in our investment theses and target markets for both multifamily and industrial (industrial outdoor storage and self-storage). Last week, an article by Jay Parsons on the merits of investing in multifamily in California versus… -
Reinventing Tradition
By Kristina C. Chang
• September 30, 2024
For a family business to survive, every generation has to reinvent what that business is. I’m sure there are some exceptions but, in my experience, I have found this largely to be true. Taking a business that is set in its ways and creating a new long-term strategy that can be executed over a 20-30… -
New Deal Closed: Kietzke Ln Reno NV
By Kristina C. Chang
• August 28, 2024
We are excited to announce that Frontera West has closed on its 8th self-storage acquisition. ABC Mini Storage embodies all that we love about value-add self-storage. ABC Mini Storage is a 77,000 sf facility located in southeast Reno adjacent to the Reno-Tahoe International Airport.The property’s in-place rental rates are over 40% below market with a…
