Baron Real Estate Income Fund (BRIIX)

Americold Realty Trust (COLD) is the world’s largest owner of temperature-controlled warehouses. Americold’s warehouses enable “farm to fork” distribution and ensure freshness, safety, and convenience. The company’s market share is roughly 20% in the U.S. and 4.5% globally, serving over 2,600 customers.
Americold operates in a relatively stable industry, since food consumption is tied to population growth and cold storage is essential for food distribution. Its proprietary data systems are a competitive advantage, in our view. Management believes cash flow could grow by high single digits per year, an attractive rate compared with other REITs. Large acquisitions could also drive growth. We believe the company’s valuation is attractive, its growth prospects are solid, and it benefits from being in a less cyclical business.

Invitation Homes, Inc (INVH) is the largest single-family home rental and management company in the U.S. with 82,000 homes across 13 markets and 9 states.
Invitation Homes owns single-family rental homes in high density and premier markets in the U.S. The company maintains internal repair & maintenance teams, allowing ample opportunity to reduce turn/leasing times and associated costs while driving rent growth against a backdrop of housing under-supply in the U.S. As the largest operator in the sector, Invitation Homes continues to look for opportunities to scale its platform in existing markets by acquiring homes and potentially partnering with builders to off-take newly built homes.

Equinix, Inc. (EQIX) is a network neutral operator of 200 data centers across 52 metros and 24 countries in North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. It provides highly reliable facilities and offers low latency interconnection to and among business partners, networks, and cloud service providers.
We believe Equinix continues to benefit from several key long-term trends, including growth in internet traffic, IT outsourcing, cloud computing, and mobility. Equinix began operating as a REIT in early 2015 and, with the improved cost of capital, announced several strategic global acquisitions (doubling topline from 2015 to 2018). We believe these acquisitions will create meaningful synergies and further enhance Equinix's global platform. We also believe Equinix can continue to outgrow the market organically and supplement growth with prudent acquisitions.

MGM Resorts International (MGM) is a casino hospitality company with properties in Macau, Las Vegas, and other regions across the U.S. 80% of its EBITDA is in the U.S., while 20% is from Macau. The company owns a 70% stake in gaming REIT MGM Growth Properties and a 56% stake in MGM China.
MGM Resorts has an attractive pipeline of projects, in our view, with ongoing upgrades to its recently opened casino in Massachusetts and the completion of its redeveloped Park MGM casino in Las Vegas. Combined with a recovery in Macau, we think these projects should add significant value over time. While the company is levered, we believe it will lower leverage organically as the new projects open and the company continues to return capital to shareholders through increased dividends and share buybacks.

Kilroy Realty Corp (KRC) is a REIT that owns a $9 billion West Coast office portfolio in key markets that include San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, and Seattle. CEO John Kilroy owns 1.2%, or $80 million, of total stock.
West Coast office real estate fundamentals are healthy, as record demand growth is exceeding modest new supply growth, leading to increasing market rents. Rents have reaccelerated in San Francisco and Seattle and continue to grow in LA and San Diego. Kilroy is expecting to grow cash flow significantly over the next several years from organic opportunities and an accretive development pipeline. We believe the stock is attractively priced at a discount to NAV.

Prologis, Inc. (PLD) is a real estate investment trust that owns a $40 billion global industrial portfolio. It was formed through the 2011 merger of AMB and legacy ProLogis.
In our view, industrial real estate has attractive fundamentals, with organic growth that is among the highest across all real estate asset types. Strengthening demand, driven by the growth of e-commerce (2/3 of retail growth), and the need for infill locations to service "last mile" delivery, continues to absorb elevated supply deliveries. Given Prologis's assets, markets, management, and balance sheet, we believe the company is well-positioned to continue benefiting from this favorable fundamental backdrop.

Hudson Pacific Properties, Inc. (HPP) is an office REIT with a 15 million square foot portfolio located mostly in California (75% San Francisco, 17% Los Angeles, 7% Greater Seattle).
Hudson Pacific Properties is a high-quality office REIT that owns office properties in markets with high barriers to entry. Office real estate fundamentals on the West Coast are superior to those in many East Coast markets, in our view. The company has several levers for growth, including rent bumps, lease-up potential, leases maturing at below market rents, an accretive development pipeline, and an active acquisition pipeline. We believe the valuation is attractive, with the stock trading at a discount.

Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (ARE) is the largest pure-play landlord and developer for the life sciences industry. The company designs and improves space for lease to pharmaceutical, biotech, and life sciences companies, scientific research institutions, universities, and government institutions.
In our opinion, Alexandria Real Estate is positioned to benefit from the aging U.S. population, ongoing health care needs, new drugs, and more capital infusions into biotech and health care. Core portfolio growth is driven by a mark-to-market growth opportunity, annual rent bumps, and occupancy gains. We think Alexandria has the potential to double in size by building out its development, redevelopment, and land holding pipeline.

GDS Holdings Limited (GDS) is a China-based operator of data centers with 16 data centers, five  markets, and more than 100,000 square meters in service. More than 50% of its revenues come from Chinese internet companies such as Alibaba, Tencent, and Baidu.
We believe GDS is poised to benefit from the explosion of cloud growth in China as the preferred provider to Alibaba and Tencent. Cloud adoption is still in its infancy in the market, and GDS is capturing more than its fair of incremental deployments due to its proven track record and carrier neutral value proposition.

Penn National Gaming, Inc. (PENN) is the largest and most diversified regional casino operator, with 41 facilities in 18 jurisdictions. The company has a history of acquiring quality gaming companies at favorable prices.
We think Penn is one of the best regional gaming operators with a strong and experienced management team. We think there is much potential for it to grow through the continued ramp up of a racetrack in Massachusetts, the acquisition of the Tropicana in Las Vegas, and the recent closing of the Pinnacle Entertainment acquisition. Penn should generate substantial synergies from the Pinnacle deal that we expect will add value for shareholders over time. In addition, Penn recently closed on the purchase of a casino in Louisiana and is about to close on one in Detroit.