JLL recently announced a partnership with Quiet Platforms, a supply chain management and warehouse sharing platform, in a push to develop logistics centers to service retailers on Quiet’s platforms. Quiet Platforms is a wholly owned subsidiary of American Eagle Outfitters and has clients like Peloton and Steve Maddon that use its facilities and network of partners. These logistic centers would operate on a “rent-as-a-percentage-of-revenue” agreement, something rather rare in real estate. This new arrangement is a way for landlords and property managers to participate in the profit that their locations are able to help generate.
Property companies have gotten more involved in logistics operations. Logistic landlord GLP shares data and analytics with its clients like Amazon on everything from traffic patterns to energy usage to vehicle exhaust to help make operations more efficient. This new JLL strategy is a way to reap some of the rewards that come from working directly with logistics tenants and represents an evolution in industrial landlord/tenant partnerships. The partnership with Quiet platforms is certainly a good step toward this new era in logistics management but it remains to be seen if other retailers will be willing to make this kind of leasing arrangement.
