Real Estate Equity Industrial
4444 52nd Street
Kentwood, Michigan Syndication Active
Value-Add Real Estate Redevelopment
Real Estate Equity Industrial
AMW World Headquarters Burton, Michigan
- Asset type
- Industrial
- Strategy
- Value-Add Real Estate
- Transaction
- Build to Suit
- Category
- Real Estate Equity
- Structure
- Fund
- Status
- Active
- Size
- 130,000 sq ft
Project overview
Project overview: AMW World Headquarters
Carbon River Capital fund tied to 4274 E. Court Street in Burton, Michigan, a 130,000-square-foot former home improvement store.
4274 E. Court Street is a fund sponsored by Carbon River Capital, tied to the property at 4274 E. Court Street in Burton, Michigan.
The property
The building is a former Lowe's home improvement store of about 130,000 square feet on Burton's Court Street retail corridor. The Lowe's closed in January 2019. New stores have since filled space at the nearby Courtland Center and Courtyard Center.
Occupancy
America's Most Wanted 4x4, a company that customizes Jeeps for off-road use, received approval from the Burton Zoning Board of Appeals in October 2024 to move its headquarters and production into the building, and began converting it in 2025. 4274 E. Court Street is the company's Burton location.
The Opportunity
The property was originally developed as a 134,000-square-foot Lowe's Home Improvement store on approximately 17 acres in Burton, Michigan. Lowe's subsequently closed the location, leaving a large-format retail building with substantial parking, loading infrastructure, freeway visibility, and convenient access to I-69.
The existing building provided a large, flexible footprint capable of accommodating uses well beyond traditional retail. Its scale and infrastructure created the opportunity to reposition an obsolete big-box property for a new generation of occupancy.
Investment Thesis
We saw an opportunity to create value by looking beyond the property's former use.
Rather than attempting to backfill a 134,000-square-foot former big-box store with another traditional retailer, our thesis was that the building's large footprint, parking field, loading infrastructure and accessibility could support a more intensive commercial or industrial use.
America's Most Wanted 4x4 provided an opportunity to repurpose the property around a growing Michigan company that needed significantly more space for its manufacturing, customization, showroom and headquarters operations.
The project reflects a core part of our investment philosophy: finding new uses for existing real estate when the value of the underlying property extends beyond the purpose for which it was originally built.
Carbon River's Approach
Carbon River and its affiliates repositioned the former Lowe's around the operational requirements of America's Most Wanted 4x4.
The redevelopment converted the former large-format retail environment into a modern automotive headquarters capable of supporting manufacturing and vehicle customization alongside showroom, office and customer-facing functions.
The project reused the scale and infrastructure of the existing building while adapting the property for a substantially different long-term use.
Current Status / Outcome
The redevelopment is complete and the property now serves as the Burton headquarters of America's Most Wanted 4x4.
The former big-box retail store has been repositioned as an active automotive manufacturing, customization and headquarters facility, returning a previously vacant large-format property to productive use.
Related strategy
How this investment fits our strategy
Opportunity takes many forms.
We welcome inquiries from property owners, business owners, brokers, lenders, investment professionals and others interested in learning more about Carbon River Capital.
Whether you are considering the sale of a property, exploring a sale-leaseback or recapitalization, or presenting an investment opportunity, contact our team.