Brookfield Asset Management’s agreement to acquire Peakstone Realty Trust in a $1.2 billion all cash deal highlights where large pools of private capital continue to concentrate. The transaction values Peakstone at $21 per share, a sizable premium to where the stock had been trading, and takes the industrial focused REIT private at a moment when public market pricing has struggled to keep up with asset-level demand. The move reinforces Brookfield’s willingness to step in where liquidity is thin and conviction is high.

Peakstone’s portfolio today looks very different from what it held only a year ago. The company exited office entirely in 2025, selling those assets and narrowing its focus to industrial properties. The remaining portfolio includes more than 70 assets, many of them industrial outdoor storage sites, a niche that has benefited from logistics growth and constrained supply. That repositioning helped clarify Peakstone’s value proposition, but it also made the company a more obvious acquisition target for a buyer with long-term capital and operational scale.

For Brookfield, the deal fits neatly into a broader strategy that has been building across real estate, infrastructure, and digital assets. In recent earnings calls, executives have emphasized demand tied to logistics, power, and data driven infrastructure as areas where capital deployment remains attractive. Industrial real estate plays a supporting role in that ecosystem, particularly as data centers and distribution networks require flexible land, storage, and staging capacity. Peakstone adds that optionality in markets where Brookfield already has a footprint.

The transaction also underscores the widening gap between public and private real estate valuations. Public REITs with concentrated exposure to favored property types have often traded at discounts despite solid operating fundamentals. Brookfield’s bid suggests that private capital continues to view those discounts as an opportunity rather than a warning, especially when assets can be integrated into a larger platform and financed outside the public markets.

The Peakstone acquisition shows how industrial real estate has become a bridge between traditional property investing and broader infrastructure themes. As office recovery remains uneven and new development slows across most sectors, capital is gravitating toward assets that support the physical requirements of a digital economy. Brookfield’s move signals confidence that those demands are durable, even as the rest of the commercial real estate market works through its reset.

J.P. Morgan just released its Global Family Office Report, finding that persistent inflation and geopolitical risk are driving wealthy family investment strategies deeper into alternatives. Real estate is a key component of that shift. Offices most concerned about inflation have allocated nearly 60 percent of their capital to alternative investments, roughly 20 percentage points above the global average, with hedge funds and real estate among the top destinations. Those allocations reflect a belief that tangible assets and income-producing property can help preserve purchasing power and diversify away from public markets.

Family offices surveyed also show a strong preference for private markets overall, underscoring that real estate sits alongside private equity, private credit and other illiquid strategies as a core building block of long-term portfolios. Offices tend to avoid traditional hedges like gold or cryptocurrencies, and instead lean on sectors where structural income and contractual cash flow can provide a return that responds to inflation pressures.

This environment is shaping what kinds of property family offices are likely to buy. Rather than chasing trophy urban skyscrapers or speculative development bets, many are targeting income-oriented sectors where rents, leases and fundamental demand drivers align with their multi-decade horizons. Industrial and logistics real estate continues to attract interest because of e-commerce demand, supply chain resilience and long term lease structures. Multifamily housing, especially in markets with strong demographic trends and rental demand, appeals for its steady cash flow and inflation-linked rent growth. Data centers and specialized property types that support secular growth trends also fit the family office emphasis on income durability and structural demand, blending real estate fundamentals with thematic exposure. The report’s findings suggest that family offices will continue to channel capital into these kinds of real estate sectors as a way to hedge risk.

Florida has become a magnet for companies and executives seeking a tax-friendly business environment, attracting relocations that have helped underpin parts of the state’s office and commercial markets. Billionaires and founders such as Citadel’s Ken Griffin and Related Companies’ Stephen Ross have actively promoted South Florida as a destination for CEOs and startups, backing campaigns to lure corporate headquarters and entrepreneurial activity to the region. Financial firms, including Wells Fargo’s wealth management unit have leased significant office space in West Palm Beach, positioning high-level operations in what has been dubbed “Wall Street South.”

A broader roster of firms, from investment managers to tech, aerospace, and logistics companies, have expanded or relocated offices to Florida in recent years. Anchors such as ARK Invest, Blackstone, Lockheed Martin, and others have signaled that Florida’s business climate offers advantages over higher-cost, higher-tax metros in the Northeast and West. Office markets in Miami and West Palm Beach have seen demand improvements, including rising absorption and higher rents for prime space, even as much of the national office sector struggles with vacancy.

But the broader migration trend that initially fueled explosive growth is cooling. Florida’s net domestic migration slowed sharply to about 23,000 gain in 2025, compared with roughly 314,000 in 2022, reflecting a dramatic deceleration in people moving into the state. The pandemic era surge of remote workers and households seeking lower living costs and tax savings has ceded momentum to a more normalized pattern of relocation, in part because housing costs have risen and the gap to high-cost markets has narrowed.

For office markets that have benefited from corporate relocations, the shift away from rapid population gains introduces a new dynamic. Steady office demand from relocating firms and executives can help sustain occupancies in core submarkets, particularly luxury and well-amenitized buildings that appeal to finance, tech and professional services tenants. But without broad-based population growth driving a larger local workforce, the uplift may remain more concentrated and uneven. How Florida markets adapt to slower migration while continuing to attract corporate users will be an ongoing test for leasing and development strategies in the Sunshine State.

Propmodo Daily is written and edited by Franco Faraudo with contributions from readers like you and the Propmodo team.

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