The Power Low-Risk Industrial Real Estate Syndication
Lessons from Brit Properties’ Founder, Joel Friedland
In a recent episode of The Power of Passive Investing podcast, host Elena sat down with Brit Properties founder, Joel Friedland, to talk about his 44-year journey in industrial real estate.
He built a large portfolio with traditional leverage before the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, endured a near wipeout, went back to the brokerage business to rebuild, and then returned as a sponsor with a very different playbook.
Today, Brit Properties focuses on one clear goal: provide investors with steady income and strong downside protection through small industrial buildings in select Chicago suburbs, using little or no debt.
This article recaps the key strategies from Joel’s interview and how they shape Brit Properties’ approach today.
1. How the 2008 Crisis Changed Everything
Before 2008, Joel and his partners owned 50 industrial buildings with about 300 investors. The portfolio was highly leveraged, with personal guarantees on the loans.
When the financial crisis hit:
Tenants stopped paying rent or went out of business
Several buildings went vacant
Joel found himself with $70 million in personal loan guarantees across seven banks
What had looked like a strong portfolio became a source of enormous stress almost overnight. Joel describes falling into a deep depression and worrying he would lose his home and reputation.
Looking back, he points to three main lessons:
Too much debt magnifies risk. High loan-to-value ratios leave no margin for error when rents fall or tenants leave.
Personal guarantees can be dangerous. They may help you win financing, but they can also put your entire personal life at risk.
Development adds complexity. Some of the hardest problems came from development deals and from investing in markets where he did not have a strong local presence.
Those real-world operator lessons are the foundation of Brit Properties’ current strategy.
2. A New Playbook: Focused, Enhanced Financial Safety
In 2018, Joel decided to return to syndication full-time with a very different approach.
Today, Brit Properties:
Buys small industrial buildings under 30,000 square feet
Invests only in about 20 specific submarkets in the Chicagoland area
Works from a list of roughly 700 buildings that fit our criteria out of about 16,000 industrial buildings in the region
Keeps leverage extremely low, or uses no debt at all
Joel calls this the “parking lot theory.” In a huge parking lot, you can either drive around aimlessly, hoping to get lucky, or you can pick one aisle and wait for a car to back out.
Brit Properties has picked its “aisle” and stays there.
This laser focus means:
We know the buildings, owners, and brokers in our target submarkets
We are not chasing deals all over the country
We can move quickly when one of the 700 buildings we like becomes available
Instead of trying to be everywhere, we are the experts in one specialized slice of the market: small industrial in a defined set of strong Chicago-area submarkets.
3. Why Low or No Debt Is Central to the Strategy
After 2008, Joel made a simple rule: Brit Properties will be super conservative with debt.
In practice, that means:
Most acquisitions are all-cash
On some deals, we may use 20% loan-to-value, occasionally up to 30%, but that is the ceiling
Joel and long-time mentor Steve Podolsky review each deal and decide together whether any debt is appropriate
As Joel puts it, he is not trying to “sizzle the steak” with leverage. He is trying to cook it slowly and carefully.
What this does for investors:
Reduces the risk of loss of capital
Reduces stress during downturns and market volatility
Allows us to focus on the tenant and the building, not the lender
Because the debt is so low or non-existent, cash flow is not eaten up by interest payments. Many of our deals target:
7% starting cash-on-cash yield
With rent escalations, income that can grow over time
Target total returns in the low-teens over a long holding period, driven by both income and appreciation
The trade-off is clear and intentional. We are not targeting “home run” returns. We are targeting steady income and high confidence in preserving principal.
4. Deep Local Knowledge and Rigorous Due Diligence
Another hard lesson from Joel’s early years: doing deals in markets where you are not local is much riskier.
Brit Properties focuses almost entirely on the Chicago region and, even within that, on a small set of towns and submarkets that we know extremely well.
Examples of that approach:
Joel tracks roughly 700 “buyable” buildings and ignores those that do not fit the profile.
He and the team know which of the collar counties and neighborhoods are safe and stable and which ones to avoid.
Each summer, associates help canvas target towns, building by building, meeting tenants and owners, and looking for opportunities.
Due diligence goes beyond the rent roll and inspection report. We lean on:
Our own decades of market knowledge
A large network of more than 300 industrial brokers in the Chicago area
Investor input from people with specialized skills, such as civil engineers who can spot drainage or flooding issues from maps and site plans
5. Tenants, Brokers, and the Strength of Relationships
Brit Properties works in a broker-driven market. We do not try to cut brokers out of deals or leasing assignments.
Instead:
We pay full commissions
We rely on local industrial brokers to bring tenants to our buildings
We nurture long-term relationships through organizations such as the Association of Industrial Real Estate Brokers (AIRE)
Our tenant base is intentionally diverse. Buildings in the portfolio have hosted:
Food manufacturers and bakeries
Makers of protein bars and dog treats
Precision metal and aerospace parts producers
Firms that make stages and exhibits
Nonprofit organizations
This mix:
Reduces dependence on any single industry
Creates more durable income streams
Adds a sense of purpose and community impact to the portfolio
6. Partner Selection and Long-Term Alignment
One of the more personal parts of Joel’s interview is how he thinks about choosing partners: business partners, investors, and even key team members.
Growing up with two therapist parents and now a daughter in the same field, Joel learned to ask deep questions about:
Values
Risk tolerance
Mood and emotional stability
How people respond under stress
He uses a simple “mood scale” from 1 to 10 to understand whether someone is usually:
Too low to act decisively
Too high and prone to impulsive decisions
Or in a healthy band where they can think clearly and manage risk
At Brit Properties, we care as much about who we are in business with as we do about the numbers in a deal. We want investors and partners who understand:
Why we use low debt
Why we prefer steady returns over aggressive projections
Why long-term relationships and trust are more important than short-term wins
7. Why Chicago’s Industrial Market Still Makes Sense
Chicago often makes national news for its crime statistics. Joel addresses this head-on:
Every large city has both safe and unsafe neighborhoods. Chicago is no different.
Brit Properties focuses on clean, stable suburbs and selected city locations, not high-crime areas.
Chicago is a strategic logistics hub. Rail lines, interstate highways, and trucking routes converge here.
The region benefits from access to the Great Lakes, which provide abundant water for food and manufacturing tenants.
For industrial users that serve the Midwest, the East and West Coasts, and Canada, Chicago is a natural base of operations. That helps support long-term demand for well-located small industrial buildings.
8. Long-Term Holding and Liquidity Options for Investors
Brit Properties generally invests with very long holding periods in mind. Some current assets date back to acquisitions in 2002, 2004, 2006, and 2008.
However, Joel also recognizes that investor needs change over time. Estate plans shift, family wealth grows, or people want to simplify their portfolios.
To address that, Brit Properties:
Has organized a liquidity program for certain long-held partnerships
Helps match existing investors who want to exit with other investors who want to increase their position
In practical terms, that often means that an investor who wants to exit a position can do so with Joel’s help, sometimes within a week, by matching with another investor already in the deal. This is not a formal secondary market, but it reflects the core values of the firm: treat investors fairly and think long-term about relationships.
9. Giving Back Through Real Estate
Finally, Joel talks about giving back, both personally and through Brit Properties.
On a personal level, he jokes that his favorite way to give back is landscaping his kids’ homes. On a broader level, he and Brit Properties:
Support the nonprofit tenants that operate inside our buildings
Attend events and galas for groups like Feed My Starving Children and organizations that furnish homes for families in need
Use our real estate to enable missions that go far beyond the four walls of a building
For Joel, the most rewarding part of the business is not just the distributions and appreciation. It is seeing how carefully chosen tenants can use these industrial spaces to serve families, communities, and people in real need.
Conclusion: A Low-Risk Way to Invest in Industrial Real Estate
Joel’s story is not about chasing the biggest possible returns. It is about learning from hard times, narrowing the focus, and building an approach that can withstand the next crisis.
The Brit Properties model is built on a few simple principles:
Stay focused on small industrial buildings in select Chicago-area towns
Use little or no debt to protect investors’ capital
Know the market deeply, down to individual buildings and streets
Partner with good people, both in the investor group and on the ground
Support tenants who create value for both investors and the community
For investors who value financial safety, steady income, and a sponsor with real experience through down cycles, this is a style of industrial real estate that feels very different from what is often marketed today.
If you would like to learn more about Brit Properties, our current portfolio, or upcoming offerings, visit BritProperties.com and use the contact form to connect with our team.
