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First Industrial Realty Trust
Peter Baccile leads First Industrial Realty Trust, a publicly traded REIT owning roughly 60M square feet of logistics real estate across North America.
First Industrial Realty Trust
First Industrial Realty Trust was founded in 1994 and has grown into a focused owner and operator of logistics real estate across the United States. Peter E. Baccile serves as President and CEO, steering a portfolio concentrated on distribution centers, light industrial buildings, and regional fulfillment hubs. The firm is structured as a real estate investment trust, making its portfolio accessible to public-market investors while it competes directly with private equity and institutional owners for prime infill industrial assets. The REIT targets supply-constrained markets with high barriers to entry, concentrating on major distribution corridors such as Southern California, the Inland Empire, New Jersey, Chicago, and South Florida. Its portfolio spans bulk warehouses, regional distribution centers, and last-mile facilities serving tenants that range from third-party logistics providers to e-commerce giants and traditional retailers. Rather than chasing speculative development broadly, the firm emphasizes asset-level operational intensity — leasing, redevelopment, and strategic land bank conversion in submarkets where truck access and labor availability create a durable moat. Public filings show the company has maintained high occupancy rates while steadily growing its portfolio through both acquisitions and development. The scale reflects the structural trend that every $1 billion in e-commerce sales requires roughly 1.25 million square feet of warehouse space, anchoring its portfolio in a secular demand pattern rather than a cyclical one. In 2024, the firm continued its capital recycling program, selling non-core assets in secondary markets to focus on its coastal and Tier 1 market strategy (per the firm). A structural differentiator is its status as a pure-play industrial REIT with a nimble balance sheet able to transact without equity partner approvals — often allowing faster closings than private fund competitors. The firm's governance as a publicly traded REIT means transparent reporting, SEC oversight, and an independent board, which contrasts sharply with the opaque structure of many private real estate owners operating in the same asset class.
General information
Firm type
Asset Manager
Year founded
1994
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Chicago
Corporate office
Chicago, IL, United States
Principals
Peter E. Baccile
President and Chief Executive Officer
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at First Industrial Realty Trust?
Peter E. Baccile serves as President and CEO and leads the executive management team. The board of directors provides governance oversight, and regional investment officers execute on acquisitions, dispositions, and development within their respective markets. As a publicly traded REIT, all material investment decisions are disclosed in SEC filings.
Does First Industrial Realty Trust develop properties or only acquire existing buildings?
First Industrial operates across the full lifecycle — it acquires existing income-producing properties, develops ground-up logistics facilities on land it already owns or acquires, and redevelops older industrial buildings into modern logistics space. Its land bank in supply-constrained submarkets functions as a proprietary pipeline that private competitors cannot replicate overnight.
Which geographic markets does the firm concentrate on?
The portfolio concentrates on major distribution corridors where population density, infrastructure, and land constraints limit new supply. Key markets include Southern California, the Inland Empire, Northern New Jersey, Chicago, South Florida, Dallas-Fort Worth, and the Pennsylvania I-81/I-78 corridor.
How does First Industrial differ from privately held industrial real estate investors?
As a publicly traded REIT, First Industrial offers permanent equity capital rather than closed-end fund structures with fixed exit timelines. This allows the firm to buy and hold irreplaceable infill assets indefinitely. The reporting is more transparent — quarterly financials, independent board oversight, and SEC compliance — but the tradeoff is that public-market pricing can disconnect from private-market values during periods of volatility.
What tenant types dominate the portfolio?
The tenant base is diversified across third-party logistics providers, e-commerce operators, food and beverage distributors, consumer goods companies, and manufacturers. The firm does not publicly disclose anchor tenant concentration, but its filings indicate broad diversification across industries that depend on physical goods movement.
Is First Industrial exposed to multi-family or office real estate?
No. The firm is a pure-play industrial REIT. It does not invest in multi-family, office, retail, or hospitality assets. This concentration gives it full exposure to logistics and warehouse demand but removes the diversification benefit of multi-property-type REITs.
What is First Industrial's stance on capital recycling?
The firm actively recycles capital, selling assets in secondary markets or non-core locations and redeploying the proceeds into higher-growth coastal and Tier 1 markets. This strategy keeps the portfolio concentrated where land constraints and demand intensity are greatest, per the firm's public statements in 2024.
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