Investment Strategy
A dedicated focus on the North American lower middle market
ERA Partners maintains a diverse portfolio of operating businesses that provide essential services which are fundamental to North American lives. The firm invests in the following sectors:
Transportation & Logistics
Digital Infrastructure
Energy Transition & Power
Environmental
Other Essential Assets
Unearth, Partner,
Scale, and Institutionalize
Our experienced investment team unearths opportunities, then partners with management teams to scale and institutionalize, endeavoring to unlock the next level of success for our partners. The team has helped to build 17 platforms (including Pre-ERA Investments) and ERA’s funds have made five investments as of August 2025 in certain essential industries such as cold storage, dairy renewable natural gas, dark fiber infrastructure, aerial wildland firefighting, and waste management.
ERA’s Investment Strategy
ERA believes its investing strategy is well-positioned throughout a variety of market conditions.
Our value-add approach seeks to provide downside protection, generate yield, and position our companies to capture long-term upside through all economic cycles.*
Essential services over the long-term
North American lower middle market businesses
Target equity investment of $50-150 million per platform, inclusive of add-on acquisitions and development opportunities
Downside protection through asset ownership and recurring cash-flows
Partnership with meaningful roll-over from management and owners
Repeatable, process-driven value creation model
*There can be no assurance that ERA will be able to implement its investment strategy or achieve its investment objectives or that any downside protection will be effective.
Portfolio
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Agile Cold Storage
Agile Cold Storage is a cold storage owner, operator, and developer of technologically advanced warehouses with a vision to deliver high-quality customer service across a nationwide network. The company partners with North American food manufacturers, processers and growers in need of temperature-controlled warehouses, bringing proven technologies and flexible problem-solving to address their supply chain challenges at lower cost and with better service.
American Aviation Holdings
American Aviation Holdings is an aerial wildland firefighting and heavy lift company offering a wide range of helicopter services in the United States and internationally. The company is a premier player in the aerial firefighting industry with long-term professional partnerships with the U.S. Forest Service and other federal and state agencies.
Crosstown Fiber
Crosstown Fiber is an owner, operator and developer of a dark fiber network offering essential digital infrastructure services to state, local, educational and commercial customers. The company’s high-capacity fiber network is purpose-built to provide fiber connectivity to 500+ school sites, administrative buildings and data centers throughout Chicago.
Novilla RNG
Novilla RNG is an owner, operator and developer of anaerobic digestion facilities turning dairy manure into renewable natural gas (“RNG”) to support federal and state greenhouse gas reduction targets. The Novilla RNG management team has over a decade of experience converting manure-derived anaerobic digester gas and landfill gas into RNG.
Robinson Waste Services
Robinson Waste Services (“Robinson”) is a solid waste platform consisting of hauling, transfer station, and material recycling assets. A regional leader in waste hauling in the Salt Lake City area, the company has served federal, municipal, and commercial customers for 35 years.
Nordic Cold Storage
Nordic Cold Storage* became the 2nd largest cold storage operator in the Southeast and the 8th largest in the U.S. under the firm’s ownership. Through strategic acquisitions and development, Nordic Cold Storage expanded its geographic footprint before being sold to AGRO Merchants Group, an OakTree Capital Management portfolio company, in 2015.
Safe Harbor Marinas
Safe Harbor Marinas* is the largest owner and operator of marinas in the world. Dedicated to providing the highest quality service across its portfolio of over 100 coastal and inland marinas throughout the United States, Safe Harbor Marinas owned 102 properties across 22 states at time of exit to Sun Communities, Inc. in 2020.
Tunnel Hill Partners
Tunnel Hill Partners* began as a single disposal site and transformed into the largest waste-by-rail provider in the U.S. with 19 sites across the Northeast and Ohio. Through asset contribution by several family businesses and the acquisition of one of its largest competitors, Tunnel Hill became a leading, vertically integrated waste services company. The company was sold to Macquarie Infrastructure Partners in February 2019.
CitySwitch
CitySwitch* develops, owns and manages wireless infrastructure for broadband wireless customers across the U.S. The company specializes in scalable network development services and the development of wireless infrastructure on railroad rights-of-ways. CitySwitch partnered with AT&T to construct new cell towers that will add to the overall communications infrastructure in the U.S. The company had completed over 150 sites, with more than 225 sites in development, at time of exit in 2021.
Landmark
Landmark* is a leading aggregator of telecom infrastructure. After establishing its core expertise in cell towers, Landmark has since expanded its aggregation business to include wind farms, solar farms, outdoor advertising billboards, data centers and smart poles. Landmark had successfully closed over 5,000 transactions at time of exit in 2021.
American Midstream
American Midstream* provides critical natural gas infrastructure, operating and managing interstate and intrastate pipelines, gathering systems and processing businesses. The company was taken public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011 and was later sold to High Point Infrastructure Partners in 2013.
Empire Petroleum Partners
Empire Petroleum Partners* is one of the largest and most diversified independent fuel distributors in the U.S. Founded in 1998, the company has a dual wholesale and retail operating platform. Empire distributed over 1.1 billion gallons of motor fuel to more than 1,500 gas stations across 30 states and Washington D.C. at time of exit in 2020.
Oxford Resource Partners
Oxford Resource Partners* is a low‐cost producer of high‐value thermal coal for powerplants in Northern Appalachia. The company was taken public on the New York Stock Exchange in July 2010 and was later sold to Westmoreland Coal Company in August 2015.
Unison Energy
Unison Energy* is a fully integrated distributed generation company that develops, builds, owns and operates combined heat and power projects at commercial and industrial customer sites such as hospitals, supermarkets, manufacturing facilities, hotels and others. The company owned and operated ~30 combined heat & power assets at time of exit in 2024.
American Education Properties
American Education Properties* is the leading provider of facilities financing to the U.S. charter school industry. The company owns and manages education-related infrastructure and real estate assets and built a diversified portfolio of specialty real property investments. The company was established in partnership with Charter School Capital, the leading provider of working capital financing to charter schools nationwide.
Flagship Communities
Flagship Communities* is an owner and operator of manufactured housing communities in Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio and Tennessee. The company focuses on acquiring assets with value-add potential. The management team has over 20 years of industry experience and an established track record in creating value through acquisitions and operational improvements. Flagship Communities owned 29 manufactured housing communities at time of exit through an IPO on the Toronto Stock Exchange in 2020.
Above please find information regarding these investments. For convenience, links to the company websites of unrealized investments are included. These websites are provided for reference only and the contents of the websites are not maintained by ERA.®
*Denotes Pre-ERA Investments. Prior to founding ERA, the Founding Partners invested together at a prior business not controlled by ERA (the “Legacy Business”). The ERA team has been principally involved, from inception, in 12 platform investments (the “Pre-ERA Investments”) while at the Legacy Business. Pre-ERA Investments were made by investment funds sponsored by the Legacy Business and not by ERA-sponsored funds.