New Frontier Holdings is an investment firm primarily focused on real estate, clean energy, and real food. We source opportunities directly, often starting a company when we see an opportunity.

Nearly 10 years ago we bought our first building in Chicago’s West Loop (and never should have sold it!). Today, we are a general partner in R^2, a fully integrated real estate investing platform with 4+ million square feet under management. We continue to believe that the real estate market is undergoing a fundamental shift from the suburbs to urban cores and from traditional to more creative work environments. To that end, we’ve assembled a large portfolio of adaptive re-use projects across the Midwest, including more than 700,000 square feet on Chicago’s Goose Island.

Thesis: Commercial real-estate demand will continue to increase for creative post-industrial spaces in urban cores.

In 2011 we founded AMP Americas, a renewable-methane project developer and CNG-station operator. Our idea was to replace diesel (the most expensive BTU) with methane (the cheapest BTU) in the transportation sector. Better yet, we developed renewable sources of methane that could serve as a drop-in renewable fuel replacing fossil-derived natural gas. Along the way, we developed the first agricultural waste-to-energy project recognized under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and were recently awarded the lowest carbon intensity score in California’s history under their Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS). Last year, AMP’s various projects had the equivalent carbon reduction of planting 2.1M trees (an area the size of Denver)¹.

Thesis: The heavy-duty trucking industry will continue to use renewable methane to displace diesel and lower emissions.
Other Investments: Incubex, AMP UK, Carbon Solutions

In the summer of 2016, we created the Fresh Factory through the merger of 87P and Farmed Here. The Fresh Factory is a platform to create, manufacture, and launch clean-label, and plant-based products and brands. We work with farmers around the Midwest to source the highest-quality produce and create CPG (consumer packaged goods) products that are distributed around the country. Every day more than 10,000 people have one of our products, and we’re just getting started.

Thesis: The future of food is plant-based and clean-label.
Other Investments: Prommus, Farmer’s Fridge, Limitless Coffee, The Kitchen

Call us old school but we are value investors. We believe you should invest in what you know, with a margin of safety, and that the real value of a business is the sum of its cash-flow over time. We also believe that companies have to provide a fundamental value proposition not only to their customers but also to their broader communities. In doing so, you can express your values while creating value. We’re not saying business has all the answers (or even most) but we hope that, at the end of the day, people eat a little healthier, the planet is a little more sustainable, and people enjoy their workplaces, at least in part because of our efforts.

¹Reduction of 82,833 tons of CO2 a year which per EPA calculator is the equivalent of planting 97,509 acres of trees or 152 square miles (Denver 155 square miles)