Investors – Commerical Equity Partners

Growing real estate assets

Who we are ?

Commercial Equity Partners is a real estate investment firm managed by industry veterans John Gross and Jeff Johnson. We raise debt and equity for private real estate offerings, seeking multi-tenant properties with stable cash flow in the $2.5M to $10M value range. We are most interested in industrial properties, and are more selective with office and retail properties.

What we provide?

We target high quality stable properties that maximize return on investment, personally fund pre-closing costs, and personally sign loan documents, all of which eliminates exposure for our clients. The firm is responsible for underwriting assets and coordinating due diligence, loan funding and closing activities. After a property is acquired, the firm implements business plans and directs day to day operations.

By co-investing together with our clients, we create better investment opportunities while limiting the financial exposure of individual investors. Our objective is to build a portfolio of stable investment properties, generating consistent and increasing cash flows that are distributed to our investors.

We make real estate investing easy for our clients.

PRESIDENT

Mr. Gross began his career in commercial real estate in 1992 with CBRE Group, Inc. (“CBRE”) in Chicago, Illinois. He served as Director of CBRE’s Financial Consulting Group for the West Coast and Investment Advisor in San Diego, California. In 2005, he joined Colliers International, where he served as Managing Director of Private Capital Advisors, investment brokerage practice and Vice President, investment property sales. In 2015 he founded Commercial Equity Partners, where he currently serves as President. During his career, Mr. Gross has been responsible for strategy development, financial structuring and negotiation of real estate assignments with an aggregate value in excess of $4.5 billion.

In 1991, Mr. Gross earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from DePaul University. He holds a Real Estate Salesperson License with the State of California, Bureau of Real Estate (License #01205055).

JEFF E. JOHNSON

EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT

Mr. Johnson began his career in 1984 when he joined the law firm of Gray Cary Ames & Frye as an associate in the real estate department. In 1988, he joined McKellar Development of La Jolla as General Counsel. He serves as a principal and Executive Vice President of McKellar McGowan LLC, where he oversees all legal and transactional affairs of the company and serves in a project management role, involving him in all aspects of acquisition, finance, entitlement, design, development, and sale. In 2015 Mr. Johnson started as Executive Vice President and principal of Commercial Equity Partners, LLC, providing operational and legal oversight of the firm’s transactional business.

During his career, Mr. Johnson has been responsible for projects involving acquisition, finance, entitlement, development, and sale of thousands of homes and apartments, millions of square feet of office and industrial properties, and numerous residential and commercial land transactions.

Mr. Johnson earned a J.D. from Hastings College of the Law in 1983. He earned a B.A. in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1980. Mr. Johnson is a member of the California State Bar (#110779) and is a licensed California real estate broker (#01160177).

Our investors are like us – hard working individuals, building our financial futures by growing our assets, net worth and cash flow. All are “Accredited Investors” per SEC guidelines. Many of our investors are career real estate professionals.

We provide our investors with access to quality real estate. Acquiring quality assets as an individual is challenging: significant equity is required to obtain a property loan; sophisticated underwriting is needed; and high-level management is a must. Only a few have the resources, risk tolerance, time, and skill set required.

Commercial Equity Partners overcomes these challenges. We provide quality underwriting and management. By co-investing together with our clients, we create better investment opportunities while limiting the amount of financial exposure that any single investor needs to take. We are experienced real estate professionals and make it easy for our investors to add quality real estate positions to their portfolios.

We have consistently paid quarterly distributions and to date we have had no capital calls. We work with Alternate Investment Platforms so that Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) may advise their clients who hold investment with us.

Invest with us

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"Really appreciate the way you run partnerships"

- Comment from a long-term investor

"I did not expect to see cash distributions so quickly"

- Comment from an investor

"I'm amazed at what you have done to the property in a short time."

– Comment from a seasoned real estate investor

Properties

171 Saxony Road, Encinitas, CA 92024

$4.8M private equity raise and $6.3M financing for the $10.4M acquisition of a boutique multi-tenant office property located in North Coastal San Diego County. The property was 95% leased at the time of acquisition with rising rental rates. The design caters uniquely to smaller tenants who have few competitive options. This dynamic creates strong occupancy and consistent rents. CEP principals maintain a 14.5% ownership interest. We project a 5 to 10-year hold with a cash IRR greater than 11.8%

925 Hale Place, Chula Vista, CA 91914

$2.4M private equity raise and $3M financing for the $5M acquisition of multi-tenant industrial business park. The project has strong historic occupancy. Since acquisition we have completed approximately $250,000 of improvements and have increased rents approximately 20%. The first year of operations provided a 6% investor distribution that was paid quarterly. CEP principals maintain a 13.5% ownership interest. We project a 5 to 10-year hold with a cash IRR greater than 12.5%.

2135 Montiel Road, San Marcos, CA 92069

$2M private equity raise for an all cash acquisition of a 10,000-square foot free-standing retail property on a short-term sale leaseback. The property is part of a larger freeway oriented destination retail center. Initially we repositioned the property with a 10-year term NNN lease to DaVita, Inc. (Fortune 500 Company) and we recently completed a $3M early lease renewal. CEP principals maintain a 15% ownership interest. Over the past three-years investors were paid 9.3% annually (quarterly distributions). Investor distributions will increase to more than 12% annually when the new rent starts in 2018.

13855 Stowe Avenue, Poway, CA 92064

$3.2M acquisition and $5.24M sale of a 26,000-square foot industrial R&D property with a 10-year lease to SpaceDev, Inc. The investors’ cash yield was 9% in the first year of ownership and escalated 3% annually. The property was held for approx. 4 years. The overall cash IRR was approx. 18%.

712 Pearl Street, La Jolla, CA 92037

$7.55M acquisition and $20M sale of a mixed-use property consisting of 23 residential rental units and 10,000 square feet of commercial/retail space. Re-developed the property with the renovation of residential condominium units for sale and commercial/retail investment. The investor net profit was approx. $8.5M over a 3-year hold. The overall cash IRR was approx. 29%.