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Economic Backbone: Commercial Real Estate
Commercial real estate developer Chad Henderson of Pensacola-based Catalyst CRE, sees ‘immense growth', capital investment dollars
Developer Chad Henderson finds a healthy niche.
Chad Henderson is founder and CEO of Pensacola-based Catalyst CRE, a commercial developer of health care properties throughout the U.S.
Over the past decade, the 42-year-old Pensacola native and Florida State University graduate has emerged as one of Northwest Florida’s leading real estate entrepreneurs.
Among Catalyst’s recent accomplishments are a new inpatient rehabilitation hospital in Greeley, Colo., and a $1.5-billion joint venture with Washington, D.C.-based National Real Estate Advisors that will focus on health care real estate investments.
While expanding the company’s nationwide health care portfolio, which covers 30 states, Henderson also is a developer and a principal investor in East Garden Street, an $80-million project that includes a nine-story hotel, restaurants and a 250-unit apartment complex in downtown Pensacola.
Henderson attributes much of Catalyst’s success to close partnerships with its investors. “What we’ve done is we’ve found a low-cost capital partner that can go up and down the risk profile, and that makes us really well positioned to either buy existing buildings and redevelop them or go and develop new ground-up health care-oriented buildings,” says Henderson.
The outlook for Northwest Florida commercial real estate, according to Henderson:
Growth: “Northwest Florida is on a path to immense growth. There are a lot of good things coming this way, but we have had our fair share of challenges and headwinds with supply chain procurement and inflation. It’s been very difficult for the construction environment to navigate that.”
Alternative Investing: “Typically, when you’re in an inflationary environment, real estate is a great place to be. With the equities market kind of frothy these days, there’s a lot more attention on alternative investing in the housing, industrial and hospitality sectors, along with more secular investing in life sciences and health care.”
Capital Inflow: “Overall, there is a lot of capital out there looking for places to invest, and Northwest Florida is certainly one of those places. Northwest Florida has been discovered and currently is seeing an historic inflow of those capital investment dollars.”
