2024 Year in Review: $22.9M Transacted by Breneman Capital in Midwest Markets

2024 was a successful year for Breneman Capital. In total, we transacted $22.9 million of real estate over the course of the year, comprising two sales and two acquisitions in the Chicago, IL, and Madison, WI markets.

Below is a summary of those transactions:

While a slower year by our standards (at least in terms of transactions), we are reassured by having abided by our forward-looking goals from our 2023 Year-End Review: that we would continue to examine market fundamentals, maintain diligent sourcing efforts, and uphold our commitment to our investors’ best interests. And that we would progress forward with a sense of urgency but not without patience, discipline, and strict investment criteria. 

Dissecting that further, we have made a confident pivot to Midwest markets given their strong occupancies and rent growth, relative lack of new supply, and favorable basis (cap rates). Moreover, we had sourced nearly 400 prospective investments in 2024, with the results of those efforts being the aforementioned investments of Fairhaven Court and The Lawrence – high quality assets that deliver attractive returns with reasonable underwriting assumptions while offering unique upside potential and downside protection. And we are pleased to report our immediate progress for each of those investments, with Fairhaven Court already beginning to capture the 15%+ loss-to-lease we had identified as well as the approval of an additional unit to be constructed at The Lawrence.

It is our belief that given what we know from history and where we currently stand in the market cycle, our investments made in 2023 and through the next few years will be some of the strongest performing assets that our company will ever have had. Despite that belief, we are not investing based on speculation. Our investments’ ability to deliver attractive returns must exist within a vacuum, which has been a testament to our patience and discipline (and why we only closed on two new acquisitions in 2024).

Elaborating on that, we have further defined our investment criteria to abide by these Four Pillars:

Location and Building Quality: We identify the best neighborhoods to protect and grow our capital. We also maintain high standards for properties’ vintage and construction quality.

Buy Right: We ensure that we acquire assets at an advantageous basis and “make money on the buy” by sourcing opportunities through off-market channels and committing to prospective investments that exhibit above-market cap rates, below-market price per unit/price per square foot, and/or below replacement cost.

Upside Potential: We seek opportunities with clear and demonstrable upside such as loss-to-lease, value-add potential, loan assumptions with below-market interest rates, property tax abatements, etc.

Conservative Structure: We make sure to minimize return volatility and protect investors from downside exposure. We do this by employing long-term outlooks with multiple exit strategies and utilizing leverage responsibly with fixed interest rates and modest LTV’s.

As we reflect on 2024, we are proud of the accomplishments we have made and the commitment to our investors that we have withstood. Once again, we would like to thank our investors for their continued trust in Breneman Capital, and we look forward to a successful year in 2025.

Best regards,

The Breneman Capital Team