European logistics investor Delin Property has appointed real estate industry veteran and board member Tom Wattles — a co-founder of industrial property giant Prologis — as CEO as the firm expands in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Spain.
Wattles replaces Rob Reiskin, who will remain a member of Delin’s board.
Well-known in the U.S. industrial real estate sector, Wattles helped start the largest publicly traded owner of warehouses and distribution centers. During his tenure at that real estate investment trust, Wattles served as Prologis’ co-chairman and chief investment officer. He also co-founded DCT Industrial Trust and expanded the business until its $8.4 billion purchase by Prologis in 2018.
Wattles has moved to the U.K. from the States for his new job, a Delin spokesperson confirmed in an email.
“Tom has an outstanding pedigree in establishing and scaling up real estate platforms,” Delin Chairman Graeme McFaull said in a statement. With the addition of Wattle, who brings an institutional real estate background, “we are in the best position to achieve our ambitions."
Wattles joins Delin during a challenging time for the European industrial market that has been hit by inflation and drop in consumer purchases.
“While the macroeconomic outlook is expected to become clearer, if not improve, by the end of the year, the overall slowdown in retail sales volumes and weak economic sentiment are starting to impact the occupier market,” Savills said in a May report.
“According to estimates, European logistics take-up in" the first quarter of this year amounted to 7 million square meters, reflecting a 16% decline from the five-year first quarter average, according to the report.
There are some bright spots in the market, Knight Frank said in the report: “Low vacancy rates will insulate the market from the impacts of any potential fall out in the occupier market, while the supply-side response remains stymied by build cost inflation, heightened financing costs, with high land entry prices and softer exit yields. These factors continue to put upward pressure on rents.”
Wattles has sat on the boards of other real estate companies including Regency Centers, Columbia Property Trust and Security Capital European Realty, bringing the experience he gained across the globe since 1978 in real estate investment, development and asset management.
From 1991 until the company’s sale in 2002 he was managing director and then chief investment officer of Security Capital Group, the largest shareholder of 18 private and public real estate operating platforms.