Global alternative asset management firm Brookfield has formed a cold storage joint venture (JV) with Māori Capital, the investment arm of Hong Kong’s fresh food retailer Uni-China Group, to acquire an industrial site in Hong Kong from Swire Properties.
New York-headquartered Brookfield, which manages over $1 trillion, announced on Friday its JV’s acquisition of the 246,000-square-foot industrial site located in Tsing Yi, an island to the northwest of Hong Kong Island.
Situated within the city’s established logistics cluster, the site will be purpose-built to meet the modern cold storage specifications required for food-grade logistics and pharmaceutical clients. It will incorporate energy-efficient refrigeration and advanced storage and logistics management solutions, Brookfield said in a statement.
Brookfield said that Uni-China’s logistics business has committed to full occupancy of the site upon its completion in 2026.
The Tsing Yi asset will serve as the seed property for a newly-launched cold storage JV between Brookfield and Māori Capital.
This strategic partnership leverages Brookfield’s global expertise in cold storage and logistic investments, as well as Uni-China’s local understanding of Asia’s fresh food retail and supply chain based on its established retail network of about 1,000 sales points across Hong Kong.
The JV will actively explore investment opportunities in high-quality cold storage assets and related businesses across Asia.
“Cold storage is a high-conviction theme for Brookfield, driven by structural shifts in consumption, evolving food logistics requirements and the under-supply of modern temperature-controlled facilities in gateway cities like Hong Kong,” said Brookfield’s head of east Asia real estate, Andrew Burych, in the statement.
“The conversion of the Tsing Yi property to a high-spec cold storage facility is in line with Brookfield’s strategy of revitalising underutilised industrial assets across Asia. Partnering with Māori Capital and leveraging Uni-China’s operating footprint creates a powerful combination of institutional capital and local market expertise, and we see potential to create a vertically integrated cold chain platform across key urban markets,” said Burych.
With a global industrial portfolio worth $26 billion, Brookfield’s holdings span 190 million square metres across five continents, making it one of the world’s most active investors in the logistics real estate sector. In Asia Pacific, the firm has $3.5 billion in logistics assets under management.
