Urbium GDI is a Real Estate Investment and Development Firm focused on the Acquisition, Development, and Management of industrial assets in Mexico.

Urbium GDI is founded by a highly experienced team with a history of identifying and capitalizing on short and long-term real estate investment opportunities throughout multiple market cycles.

We are focused on sourcing, acquiring, managing, operating, and developing a diversified portfolio of institutional quality industrial properties in Mexico’s main markets.

The firm’s investment business is concentrated on institutional-quality industrial assets in high barrier-to-entry, main markets that have experienced dramatic shifts in demand in recent times.

Our institutional approach to driving returns for our investors is predicated on the belief that a research-driven team with strong local expertise and execution capabilities improves performance.

Business Today

Urbium GDI combines its specialized technical & market expertise, relationships, and meticulous attention to detail to generate superior risk-adjusted returns for their investors.

35
Industrial Properties

700k m²
Land Reserve

US $450M
Assets Under Management

4
Markets

~4.5M SF
GLA

Urbium GDI is an affiliate of Grupo GDI, a Mexican Real Estate platform established in 1989 focused on acquiring, developing, building, managing and leasing Real Estate assets in Mexico.

Grupo GDI and its partners Manage approximately US$5B in Assets Under Management (AUM) and have developed over 20 million sq. ft. of real estate assets across 26 estates and 39 cities throughout Mexico.

Grupo GDI has structured over five investment vehicles:

Industrial

Acquires, develops, leases and manages industrial properties in Mexico to sell them to investors. Currently manages 35 properties (4.5M sq. ft. of GLA and a land bank of +7’’k sq. ft.)

Hotels

Mexican REIT focused on developing, acquiring, holding and operating hospitality assets in Mexico. Currently owns 85 hotels with more than 12,360 keys.

Residential

A 735 Ha community within Mexico City. Potential for 28k high-end residential units (4.5k existing units and 2.5k under-development units).

Commercial

Co-investor and manager of +5.5M sq. ft. of GLA in the retails and office sectors. Has +2.5k tenants within 9 mixed-used properties in Mexico City metro area.

Alternatives

Venture Capital & Special Purpose Investments: Other real estate assets such as offices, self storage, residential units and luxury hospitality.

Key drivers of our success:

    • In-house capability to execute on combined development and acquisitions strategy

    • Institutional systems and processes

    • Senior management with close relationships with all institutional lenders in Mexico and vast experience with loans and re-financings including public markets

    • $450M+ of invested AUM generated off-market

    • JV agreements with local developers, incentivizing agents to source exclusive deals to Urbium GDI

    • Clear focus on highly liquid, institutional markets: Tijuana, Monterrey and Ciudad Juarez. Opportunistically invest in Tier 2 Markets.

    • > $35B invested / developed in Mexican real estate market

    • Mgmt. team with significant experience navigating through various Mexican cycles, acquiring, selling, financing, divesting and taking companies public

    • Management team with proven capability of scaling national real estate platforms in Mexico and exiting successfully.

    • Maintaining flexibility key to finding attractive opportunities and deploying capital in Mexico. Mexico is a relationship-based market.

Selected Investments

  • GDI Industrial Mty, Santa Catarina

    MTY Santa Catarina I

    (Santa Catarina, Nuevo León, México)

  • GDI Industrial CDJ Río Bravo I

    CDJ Aztecas V

    (Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, México)

  • GDI Industrial CDJ, Independencia II

    CDJ Independencia II

    (Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, México)

  • GDI Industrial TJ, Blvd 2000

    TJ Blvd 2000

    (Tijuana, Baja California, México)

  • GDI Industrial CDJ, Bravos

    CDJ Bravos

    (Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, México)

  • REY Del Norte I

    (Reynosa, Tamaulipas, México)

Meet the Partners & Board Members

The Urbium GDI senior team has over +100 years of cumulative experience in real estate and finance, and over US$35B in transactions in the Mexican Real Estate Market, bringing both leadership stability and deep market experience to its portfolio and investors.

Simón Galante

+30 Years of Experience

    • +30 years of experience in Real Estate Investments and Real Estate Development.

    • GDI Founding partner and CEO. FibraHotel founding partner and Chairman of the Board.

    • Simón has led the investment, development, management, leasing and disposition of single assets and portfolios across all real estate sectors in Mexico.

    • Member of the Board of FibraHotel, Fondo Hotelero Mexicano I & II, Fondo Comercial Mexicano, La Vista Country Club, Bosque Real, among other. Member of the Board of Consejo del Museo de Tolerancia and President of Amefibra.

    • MBA from IPADE and OPM from Harvard Business School.

Erez Cohen

+19 Years of Experience

    • +19 years of experience in Real Estate Investments and Development.

    • Erez has participated in more than US$4.5B transactions across all real estate sectors. Before Urbium GDI, Erez served as CIO at Thor Urbana investing more than US$2.0B equity.

    • Before, Erez was part of Vertex (AREA Property Partners), Carlyle and Evercore. Member of the Board of the ULI and of some Mexican Pension Funds (Afores). He received the ULI Rising Star Award.

    • Author of the international bestseller Real Estate Titans book. BA from Manhattan College (Summa Cum Laude) and MBA from Wharton Business School (Bucksbaum Fellow).

Sandor Valner

+35 Years of Experience

    • +30 years of experience in Real Estate, Private Equity and Finance.

    • Sandor has led more than US$20B in fund raising, real estate investment, M&A and restructurings.

    • Before Urbium GDI, he served as Latam CEO at Walton Street Capital, a global real estate investment fund, where they raised five funds and more than US$1.5B of equity in Mexico primarily focused on the industrial sector.

    • Before joining WSC, he was the Head of Mexico at Credit Suisse.

    • MS and MBA from Stanford University.

Jorge Laventman

+20 Years of Experience

    • +20 years of experience in the Real Estate industry and more than US$5B in industrial and commercial assets managed.

    • Before joining Urbium GDI, he served as Head of Asset Management and Partner at Advance Real Estate/Walton St. Capital, optimizing financial performance and operating efficiency of 70 industrial assets valued at over US$1 billion (11M sq.ft. GLA).

    • He also served as Head of Asset Management at PGIM, leading the management of over 240 industrial assets valued at over US$3 billion (5M sq.ft. GLA), attending REITs and CKDs.

    • Held roles as Investment Officer at Prologis and Debt Risk Analyst at GE Capital Real Estate, financing over US$1B in Industrial, Office, Retail, and Hospitality assets.

    • Member of the Board at Prudential Real Estate Investors in Latin America and Business Ombudsman by GE Capital Mexico.

    • BS from Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City and MBA from IPADE Business School, Mexico City.

Mario Campoy

+23 Years of Experience

    • +23 years of experience in Real Estate Development & Construction specialized in the industrial sector.

    • Before Urbium GDI, Mario served as COO and Development Director at PGIM Real Estate, overseeing operations in Mexico.

    • Previously, Mario was involved in the construction and development of multiple projects at various companies such as MIRA, Grupo Copri, Delta Desarrollos, among others.

    • BS in Civil Engineering from Tec de Monterrey, MBA from Aberystwyth University and MFin from the University of Barcelona.

Javan Medina

+17 Years of Experience

    • +17 years of experience in Real Estate, Private Equity and Investment Banking.

    • Before joining Urbium GDI, Javan served as an Investments & Asset Management Manager at Ivanhoe Cambridge overseeing investments in Mexico and IC’s investments in Global Funds.

    • Before, he managed investments in Vertex Private Equity and served as an Investment Banking advisor at Evercore, participating in M&A, capital raising and strategic shareholder advisory.

    • Member of the Advisory Board of GQC and of the Investment Committee of briq.mx.

    • BS from Tec de Monterrey and MBA from EGADE Business School.

Peter Linneman

+40 Years of Experience

    • +40 years of experience in Real Estate investments, strategy and operations. Dr. Peter Linneman is founder and CEO of Linneman ARPA, American Land Fund, KL Realty y Linneman Associates. Author of Real Estate Finance, Linneman Letter and more than 100 academic publications.

    • Dr. Linneman served as Partner of Equity International, CEO at Amerimar Realty and Chairman at Rockefeller Center. He is currently a member of the board of several international real estate companies.

    • He was professor emeritus at Wharton Business School and at the Zell Lurie Real Estate Center. He has been professor at Wharton Business School for more than 32 years.

    • Masters and PhD from Chicago University.

Alberto Galante

+35 Years of Experience

    • +35 years of experience in Real Estate investment and development.

    • Founding partner of Grupo GDI. +30 years of experience in development, acquisition and management across all Real Estate sectors in Mexico.

    • Before the establishment of Grupo GDI, Alberto was a founding partner and Chairman of the Board of the textile company Super Jeans.

    • Member of the Board of Fondo Hotelero Mexicano I & II, Fondo Comercial Mexicano, La Vista Country Club, Bosque Real and Mercap.

Guillermo Bravo

+18 Years of Experience

    • CIO at FibraHotel. +18 years of experience in Investment Banking and Real Estate, including activities within the structuring, financing, due diligence and the negotiation of HMA at FibraHotel.

    • Experience in finance and investor relations having been part of the Diversified Industries and the Latin America M&A teams at J.P. Morgan New York.

    • Bachelor in Industrial Engineering from Iberoamericana and MBA from Booth Uchicago.

ESG

Urbium GDI thrives to make a difference by having a relevant focus on ESG --Environmental, Social and Governance:

    • Focused on integrating the best sustainability practices (LEED and other relevant certifications, efficient use of water, energy, etc.)

    • Environmental initiatives will be implemented such as solar panels, LED lighting, construction materials, etc.

    • Social impact investments

    • Creation of job opportunities for thousands of workers in factories and warehouses

    • Development of programs to support diverse talent and equity

    • Ensuring women are well-represented in the workforce

    • Best practices in risk management

    • Supervised by the Board of Directors

    • Fiduciary duties to investors

    • Full transparency and complete alignment with investors’ interests

    • Ethics & Integrity

    • Leadership development

    • Tax strategy

Contact Us

(+52) 55 5292 8050

Av. Santa Fe 481, Piso 7.
Col Cruz Manca- Santa Fe.
Cuajimalpa, CDMX, 05349

For investment opportunities
please contact:
contact@urbiumgdi.com