Clear Height Properties expands acquisition team

OAK BROOK — Jed Degnan has been named a director of acquisitions at Clear Heights Properties as the company looks to significantly expand its portfolio of industrial and office properties in the Chicago metro area and across select Midwest markets.

“We believe there is great opportunity, in Chicago as well as Midwestern cities like Indianapolis, Columbus, Cincinnati, Nashville, St. Louis and Kansas City, to leverage the platform, relationships and track record that CHP has established to source attractive new investment opportunities for our investors and to bring additional scale to our operations,” said Gary Rose, CHP’s chief operating officer and president. “The addition of Jed Degnan is a strategic commitment to continue to improve CHP by expanding our team’s expertise, relationships and reach in our target markets to fuel CHP’s growth in the coming years.”

With more than 20 years of experience in commercial real estate, Degnan’s role as a director of acquisitions is to identify, assess and evaluate opportunities to acquire properties according to the firm’s established acquisition criteria and, in the process, further relationships with the brokerage community. The ultimate goal is to expand the Clear Height portfolio of industrial and office buildings.

Degnan is well-suited for his position with CHP, based on a career that initially included positions in the brokerage community before spending approximately 18 years in acquisitions. Most recently he was director of acquisitions for Midwest Industrial Funds where he was responsible for identifying opportunistic “off-market” investment opportunities on behalf of two industrial real estate funds. He also was the point of first contact for all brokers in the Chicago industrial brokerage community.

Previously, for more than 10 years, he was a vice president of acquisitions for CenterPoint Properties. While there he performed similar functions — acquiring industrial property in Chicago and the East Coast for the company’s portfolio and working as a liaison with the brokerage community during the company’s expansion into new markets.

Clear Height’s current portfolio consists of industrial and office buildings totaling approximately 3 million square feet of space. Its portfolio is located primarily in the Chicago metropolitan area, as well as in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Based on the firm’s acquisition criteria, it will explore opportunities throughout the Midwest.