GFH Partners Exits Illinois Logistics Site With $151M Sale to Michelin
The Dubai-based asset manager and Silver Creek Development sold the fully leased property to its tenant, closing its fourth US industrial exit.
Tariq Benali Tariq Benali covers business and corporate news across the UAE and MENA for Anecdoted, tracking the deals, leadership moves and regulatory shifts behind the region's companies. tariq@anecdoted.com
GFH Partners has closed out an investment in Illinois, selling a two-million-square-foot industrial property to its tenant, Michelin North America, for $151 million.
The transaction was completed with Silver Creek Development, the partner that co-owned the asset, and closed on October 6, 2026. It marks the fourth time GFH Partners has exited a holding in its US industrial and logistics portfolio.
The Dubai International Financial Centre-based firm and Silver Creek acquired the site in February 2021. Over the holding period, the two partners added trailer parking capacity and renegotiated Michelin's lease well before it was due to expire in November 2027, securing an early extension.
A distribution hub for Michelin
The building sits on 91 acres roughly 60 miles southwest of downtown Chicago, with access to Interstate 55 and the BNSF rail network. It is fully occupied and supports more than 400 employees. Michelin operates only two super regional distribution centers in the United States, and this is one of them, handling a sizeable share of the imported inventory the company holds in the country.
Nael Mustafa, chief executive of GFH Partners, said a tenant's decision to buy the building it occupies is the strongest endorsement an asset can earn. He added that the two sides worked closely through the investment period to upgrade the facility and keep Michelin's operations running, which produced the exit for the firm's investors.
An exit in a slow market
The sale went through against difficult conditions in commercial real estate. Borrowing costs remain high, debt is hard to secure, deal volumes are thin, and buyers and sellers are still far apart on pricing.
GFH Partners runs a US logistics platform that holds a range of industrial asset types, among them truck terminals, fleet yards and sites used for container storage.
The firm oversees $8 billion in assets under management spread across the United States, the United Kingdom and the Gulf Cooperation Council, according to the statement accompanying the sale.
Its group chief executive, Hisham Alrayes, placed eighth in a 2026 ranking of the Middle East's 50 largest asset managers and 86th in a separate 2026 list of the region's 100 leading chief executives.
A second front: aircraft engines
Parent company GFH Bank, which is based in Bahrain, has committed $60 million to a new venture aimed at buying next-generation commercial aircraft engines, working with Bridgepoint and AIP Capital. The partners intend to raise capital from institutional investors and private wealth clients, with the goal of scaling the portfolio toward $1 billion.
The tie-up dates to 2024, when the firms jointly bought an initial portfolio of LEAP-1B engines.
