Goldman Sachs invests in Elion Partners’ last-mile properties

Funds controlled by Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) have invested an unspecified amount in a portfolio controlled by real estate investment firm Elion Partners that contains more than 3 million square feet of urban land to be tansformed into facilities to support last-mile deliveries of online orders, Elion said.

Goldman, one of the world’s largest investment banks, will invest through its “Vintage Funds” vehicle, Elion said in a recent statement. Miami-based Elion built its last-mile portfolio of “infill” space — open-space urban land being repurposed for new construction — in part by acquiring six “distribution buildings” during the first half of the year, it said.

Elion expanded to the West Coast earlier this year, and hired James Lambert, an executive at Amazon Logistics, the transportation unit of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), as senior managing director.

“The impact of the [COVID-19] crisis has resulted in increased demand for an already active logistics real estate market,” said Elion Managing Partner Juan DeAngulo in the statement announcing the Goldman investment. “E-commerce adaptation and the need for supply chain onshoring are both pre-crisis trends that have been accelerated, which have combined with the emergence of increased inventory levels as companies look to mitigate future volatility risk.”

Elion owns and operates logistics assets in closed-end fund structures and permanent capital vehicles. The firm is a minority-owned registered investment adviser.