Most investors who want to own ground leases cannot find them. The few that trade are large, sit in the biggest cities, and sell through an auction with someone else’s lease attached. We make new ones. We find the property, size the rent, write the lease to the standard leasehold lenders accept, and bring each one to an investor who has already told us what they want to own.
Old ground leases carry old terms: fair-market rent resets, short remaining terms, land pledged to the tenant’s loan. Each one is a reason the building above becomes hard to finance, and a building that cannot be financed is weak collateral for your rent.
A new lease has none of that. It is written once, correctly, before you own it: unsubordinated, fixed escalations, no market resets, and the lender protections that keep the building financeable for decades. The diligence list for any ground lease is in how family offices buy ground leases.
Made to order also means the size and the market are yours. Institutional ground lease capital has moved to the largest deals in the largest cities. Below that, in good secondary markets, there are sound buildings whose owners want the land cost out of their capital stack and almost nobody to sell to. That is where we work.
| Step | What happens | What you decide |
|---|---|---|
| 1. The box | You tell us what you want to own: size per position, property types, markets, minimum coverage, finished buildings only or projects before construction | Everything. It is your box, written down once |
| 2. The deal memo | For each property that fits, a short memo and the file behind it: NOI, value, coverage, the lease terms, the land contract, the sponsor | Whether to look closer |
| 3. Yes or no | You run your own diligence against the file. A no costs you nothing and needs no explanation | Whether to buy |
| 4. Closing | The land is bought by a single-purpose company formed for that purchase. You own the company and fund it at closing. The 99-year lease is signed the same day | Title, counsel, how you hold it |
| 5. After closing | Rent collection, estoppels and lender consents. We can administer the lease or hand it to your office | Who services it |
You do not join a fund and you do not commit capital in advance. You see one property at a time and you own what you buy, whole.
| Term | Our standard | Why it protects the owner of the land |
|---|---|---|
| Subordination | Never. The land does not secure the tenant’s loan | A foreclosure on the building cannot reach your land |
| Rent | 20 to 30 percent of the building’s stabilized NOI | The building can pay you through a bad year |
| Escalations | Fixed annual increases, plus an inflation test every ten years with a cap | Income grows on a schedule you can read today |
| Resets | No fair-market-value resets, ever | Nothing in the lease makes the building unfinanceable later |
| Price against value | Land price held to about a third of the whole property’s value | Two thirds of the value sits behind your position |
| Lender protections | Notice, cure and new-lease rights for the leasehold lender | A financeable building is what pays the rent |
The lender row surprises some buyers. It is the public agency standard, laid out in what leasehold lenders require, and it works in the landowner’s favor.
Under a finished building. The property is built, leased and earning. Coverage is a measured number. You close when title and the lease are ready.
Under a project before it is built. You commit to buy the land when construction financing closes. Coverage is a projection until the building opens, so we show you the land’s value as it sits today next to the price, and you decide knowing both.
Many investors start with finished buildings and add new projects later. Either is fine. Say which when you send the box.
We are paid when a deal closes, through its pricing, and each deal memo says so in plain words. There is no management fee, no promote and no fund. If a deal does not close, you owe us nothing.
We do not sell slices. Each position is a whole real-estate interest bought by one owner. Fractional structures such as tenancy-in-common interests and Delaware statutory trusts are a different product and are not offered on this site.
Family offices and private investors placing $2 million to $20 million per position, who want to own land directly and read every document.
Owners who have just sold land or a business and want the proceeds back in land, with a tenant and a building on it this time.
Exchange buyers on a deadline. A ground lease is real property and can be replacement property. The mechanics are in buying a ground lease with 1031 proceeds; confirm your own exchange with your intermediary and tax adviser.
The land, on a 99-year lease: nothing to manage, senior to the building’s lender, low yield because the buyer is buying the right to not pay the tax. The building above it: higher yield, paid monthly, depreciable. Both are replacement property. Both close on a date we control, which is the part that matters on day 140.
1031 SolutionsWorking with an intermediary? The standby sheet for line 3 of the identification form.
We find a building or project whose owner wants to sell the land and keep the building, size the rent, write a new 99-year unsubordinated lease, and bring the land position to an investor who has told us in advance what they want to own. The investor buys the land and receives the rent.
No. You tell us your box once: size, property types, markets, minimum coverage. After that you see one property at a time with a deal memo and decide yes or no on each. There is no fund and no advance commitment.
The land is bought by a single-purpose company formed for that purchase. You own the company and fund it at closing, and the ground lease is signed the same day. Your counsel reviews title and the lease before you fund.
On the transaction, through its pricing, stated in writing in each deal memo. There is no management fee and no promote, and nothing is owed if a deal does not close.
Land positions of roughly $2 million to $20 million each, under commercial property of most types, often outside the largest metros where institutional ground lease capital has stopped buying.
Size per position, property types, markets, and whether you want finished buildings, new projects or both. We will tell you what we are seeing that fits.