Firm Overview

Brookwood is a private equity investment firm that specializes in acquiring and managing commercial real estate and other real estate-related operating businesses. Since our founding in 1993, we have consistently employed an innovative and contrarian investment approach to generate attractive returns for our investors, which include both global institutional investors, such as Wall Street investment banks, sovereign wealth funds, college endowments, and pension plans, as well as an extensive network of high-net-worth individuals. Our $4.5 billion historical portfolio has spanned multiple asset classes and geographical markets across the United States. We pride ourselves on our understanding of markets and economic cycles, and we are pleased to be one of the few private equity firms that proactively sold its entire legacy real estate portfolio prior to the Great Recession of 2008.

In addition to managing our expansive real estate portfolio, Brookwood also founded Yesway, a gas station and convenience store business, which we grew into a chain of over 439 locations across nine states.

Our Investment Philosophy

A cornerstone of our investment philosophy is to remain flexible by anticipating and adapting to changes in economic, credit, and market cycles. Our approach to investing is informed by the following core principles: we will never compromise our investment discipline; we manage risk responsibly and systematically; we foster a collaborative working environment; we are operators, not financial facilitators; and we communicate transparently, proactively, and frequently with our investors.

What Makes Us Different

We believe that mainstream thinking and confirmation bias can lead to mediocre results. We have built an organization that invests with discipline while simultaneously embracing creative solutions and encouraging going against the grain. We continually look for patterns and use past experiences, accumulated market intelligence, and insight to make informed investment decisions. This approach enables us to focus on those markets and asset classes that are poised for growth, divest investments from markets that have peaked, and continuously adapt our business plans to exploit emerging trends.

We Are Active Value Creators

Our team has substantial experience investing in and managing commercial real estate and real estate-related companies through a variety of economic, credit, and real estate cycles. We take an active approach to creating value for all our assets. Our detailed underwriting process enables us to uncover opportunities overlooked by others, and our hands-on asset management, property management, and building engineering services allow us to align our economic goals as an owner with the successful execution of our business plans. We improve and reposition assets in a targeted and judicious manner, making only those capital improvements that we think will be accretive to returns. By empowering our people to make independent decisions, we are organizationally able to move quickly and diligently to maximize our investors’ returns.

Our Commitment to Our People

We work hard to create a strong and inclusive corporate culture. To us, having a healthy corporate culture is more than just paying good salaries and providing meaningful, fulfilling work. We want all of our team members not only to be passionate about what they do, but also to maintain a healthy work-life balance. We provide our employees with the opportunities to pursue their passions, to develop a genuine sense of purpose, to think and act like owners, and to feel a sense of responsibility, not just to our investors, but to one another as well.

We are Committed to Having a Diverse and Forward-Thinking Workforce

At Brookwood, we appreciate that our impact as a firm extends beyond our investors, and we believe it is possible to maximize investment returns while seeking opportunities to create value for all of our stakeholders. This is evident not only in the transparency and respect with which we treat our investors, industry colleagues, customers, and employees, but in our long standing commitment to serving the communities in which we invest and operate.

We firmly believe that our investment process is strengthened by diversity of thought and opinion, and we pride ourselves on the diversity of our employees and of the boards of directors for our portfolio companies. Across Brookwood and our portfolio companies, we are dedicated to charitable giving – both financially and through volunteer efforts – and to the support of national and local community initiatives. The capital plans for our properties include commitments to energy efficiency, implemented in such a way as to meet our economic targets for return on capital. Through these types of initiatives, we demonstrate that social responsibility and fiduciary accountability need not be mutually exclusive.