EXCLUSIVE: IOS veteran Alex Olshansky launches Apex IOS

Alex, tell us about your prior experience in IOS and when you decided to go all-in on the sector versus other asset types.

Prior to founding Apex, I was Principal and Head of Investments at Zenith where in a relatively short time we were able to build a vertically integrated national IOS platform capitalized via two joint ventures with JP Morgan Asset Management. In less than four years we acquired over 60 properties across every major market in the country.

I remember my IOS "aha moment" very well: I was looking at a pocket of industrial in Charlotte off Graham and Atando and I noticed that many of the properties had a uniform look to them, with trucks, cars and construction equipment neatly arranged. While each property had distinct and disparate uses, they shared similar characteristics. Despite having a decade of experience in commercial real estate, I didn't have a name for what I was looking at. It felt like I had seen an alien.

We started calling on listings of what we'd now call IOS properties and quickly realized a couple of things: brokers weren't focused on them, information was scarce and very inconsistent, there was almost no institutional ownership, and there were many thousands of these properties across the country. Sticky tenants, net leases, ability to retain future development potential; the more we learned the more we became excited by the opportunity. I've been 100% focused on the asset class ever since.

How has the industry evolved from your early days?

When we first started in the space it felt a lot like the Wild West. There were only a few groups competing to purchase these assets and we spent a lot of time on the phone with confused brokers explaining what we were looking to buy. There was no standardization to how people thought about rents, and it was not unusual to hear one broker quote $3k/acre/month and another $6k/acre/month for the same asset. There was even disagreement over what to call the asset class, though "IOS" won out after a brief battle with "ISF" (Industrial Service Facility). There was unprecedented rent growth from 2020-2022 with some markets experiencing 100% rent growth in 12-18 months, which was disorienting for a lot of market participants and contributed to the wave of new entrants looking to get in on the trade.

We're in a very different world now. Forget about what inning we are in, what we're seeing now is IOS 2.0 -- the institutionalization phase. Billions of dollars have been raised and deployed, there are multiple IOS-focused brokers and investors in every major market, we have conferences with hundreds of attendees, and data has become much more available though still fragmented compared to other sectors.

How will Apex participate in the IOS 2.0 landscape?

While we're in a new phase of IOS, we are still very early in its maturation arc. For context, it took self-storage a couple of decades to become a relatively efficient asset class. We think that means investing in IOS going forward will be increasingly less of an art and more of a science. So, for Apex, the next iteration of IOS means being data-driven in how we evaluate opportunities. Relationships still drive most opportunities, but we want to be thoughtful about where we are spending our time.

For example, we have built a proprietary rent growth model to help us predict IOS markets with the most potential to outperform. While helpful, market-level data can sometimes obfuscate what's happening in different submarkets. To that end, we are focused on population and income growth metrics for every site we look at; our data shows that for every 10,000 additional people in a 5-mile radius you can expect IOS rents to grow 2%, and for every $5,000 in additional household income you can expect an additional 4% in rent. It's clear validation of our preference to purchase sites in high-growth, high-density and high-income locations.

Are there any other trends in IOS that you are tracking?

Big picture, the outlook for IOS is very healthy nationally. While rising slightly over the past couple of years, the overall vacancy rate is just under 4% and remains much lower than traditional industrial.

Overall rent growth has moderated but the story still varies from market to market with net absorption year to date being positive for roughly half of the top 40 markets.

Something we have been tracking is who the most active buyers of IOS are. In addition to private investors, users have traditionally been the most active buyers. That shifted for a couple of years post-covid where for the first time private equity buyers deployed more capital into IOS than users. In 2022 for every dollar deployed by private equity, users deployed $0.47. That has completely flipped and thus far in 2025 users have deployed $2.29 for every dollar invested by private equity.

Throughout your career, you've made deals in most markets nationwide. Given that broad perspective, how do you decide which markets to focus on as a new venture with a lean team?

While we can transact in every major market, we will be most focused on markets where we have the strongest existing relationships and transactional experience. For us that means a heavy focus on the Sun Belt with an emphasis on major markets such as Phoenix, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Atlanta, and South Florida. While I primarily sit in New York we also have a Miami office to help us better cover that region.

What's your take on primary versus secondary/tertiary markets?

We’ve always been focused on major and growing secondary markets for a litany of reasons: scale, liquidity, network effects, institutional familiarity, depth of tenant demand, and ultimately stronger potential for outsized rental growth and cap rate compression. The top 30 markets account for a little under 70% of the total IOS value in the US, so it's also a relatively efficient use of resources to focus there.

That said, there is certainly more opportunity for smaller investors in secondary and tertiary markets. There is still an element of "IOS 1.0" in many of these markets. For example, cities like Green Bay or Albuquerque each have 200+ existing IOS properties but are not on any institutional IOS investor's radar. For someone willing to roll up their sleeves there are good buying opportunities in anyone's backyard.

Are there any "fallen angel" markets that are poised for a rebound?

Some of the biggest IOS rental repricing has been in primary port markets, places like LA, the Inland Empire and Savannah. At some point I think we're approaching an inflection point where these markets start looking attractive again on a relative basis. For example, markets like Las Vegas and Phoenix have really benefited at the expense of the Inland Empire, but what was once a significant rental cost savings in those markets has narrowed over the past three years. In 2022 Las Vegas rents were at a 65% discount to the Inland Empire but now they are only 20% less. The challenge is timing it right - you want to be early enough to capture the recovery but not so early that you're catching a falling knife. We're watching it closely but staying disciplined about entry points.

What are your preferred tenant types for your new venture?

We don't have any preferred tenant types but rather are more focused on buying IOS sites with the deepest potential tenant demand. One of the things we like most about IOS is the diversity of uses. We'll be looking to build a balanced portfolio that is not overweight in any industry.

Owning real estate is very capital-intensive, so one of our roles in the ecosystem is as a provider of liquidity for corporate users of IOS whether via sale-leasebacks, build-to-suits, or tenant-in-tow transactions, allowing them to focus on operations and potentially higher return-on-equity investments.

What does Apex look like 5 or 10 years from now?

We'll see! No matter what the future holds, we are excited to participate in the continued institutionalization of the asset class. Ultimately our focus will be on seeking to deliver the best risk-adjusted returns for our investors.

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To connect with Alex, you can email him here or find him on LinkedIn and Twitter/X.