Deals: Private Equity Speaks Up

The week's leading deal among the top ten North American transactions was the $1.5-billion purchase of GMH Communities Trust by student housing owner-operator American Campus Communities, although the transaction included nearly $1 ...

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JV Fund Invests $61M in Student Housing

A joint venture of locally based Place Properties LP and Chicago-based Blue Vista Capital Management LLC has invested $61 million in three student housing projects. The investments were made under the Place/BV Student Housing Fund LLC, which is managed jointly by the two companies.

The properties, all of which are scheduled to open in July 2008, include the first phase of 2818 Place, which serves Texas A & M University; Veranda Place, which serves the University of Texas-Pan American and Huntsville Place, which serves the University of Alabama-Huntsville. more...

The Place/BV Student Housing Fund Announces Recent National Investments Worth Over $61 Million

ATLANTA and CHICAGO, Aug. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- The Place/BV Student Housing Fund, LLC, a real estate investment fund focused on the acquisition and development of student housing properties nationwide, announced its three most recent investments valued at $61 million. These student housing development projects, all opening July of 2008, are: 2818 Place serving the students of Texas A & M University, Veranda Place serving the students of University of Texas-Pan American and Huntsville Place serving the students of University of Alabama-Huntsville. BVP Managers, LLC, a joint venture between Atlanta, Georgia-based Place Properties, L.P. and Chicago, Illinois-based Blue Vista Capital Management, LLC, serves as the Manager of the Fund.

Bob Clark, Chief Acquisitions Officer for Place Properties said, "As a part of our growth strategy, we continually seek high growth/high barrier to entry markets. Each of these three markets satisfies our investment criteria for a Place community." more...

Harrison Street Capital pushes into self-storage

Harrison Street Real Estate Capital (HSRE) a Chicago-based real estate private-equity firm, announced today the formation of a strategic alliance with 180 Development Services, LLC and Morningstar Properties, LLC (Morningstar) to invest in self-storage properties throughout the Southwestern United States.

..... HSRE's model is to provide equity capital at the property level to developers and operators in the specialty sectors of the real estate market. These sectors principally include self-storage, marinas, student housing, senior housing / assisted living, medical office/healthcare and related parking.  Harrison Street's inaugural fund has already entered into seven strategic joint ventures and has acquired or is in the process of developing 40 properties worth approximately $400 million. more...

ING Clarion to create global opportunity space

ING Clarion Partners is establishing a global opportunity platform with the hiring of David Gilbert as a managing director and portfolio manager.

This new entity will see the real estate manager pull together opportunity funds to invest in assets on a global basis, including assets based in the US.

His first move as head of this operation will be to create a commingled opportunity fund but there is so far no specific timetable for its establishment nor any indication of just how big the commingled fund will be but Gilbert suggested the projected gross IRR returns would be at least 20%.

“Our investment strategy would include both developed and emerging market countries. This would involve places like United States, Mexico, China, India, and eastern and central Europe.”

......He was most recently a managing director at JP Morgan Asset Management where he ran the alternative property fund - an open-ended commingled fund with total assets of $650m (€471.4m) which creates joint ventures to focus on a single non-core property such as senior housing, student housing and hotels. more...

Investors Keep Pouring Money Into Real Estate

Another week, another billion dollar real estate fund formed.

Philadelphia-based BPG Properties, a private equity real estate fund manager, said it closed out its largest private equity fund in the firm’s 25-year history, raising a total equity commitment of $850 million from investors, providing what it said was nearly $3 billion in buying power.

The market is rife with investors clamoring for a piece of the action. Blackstone has been garnering the most headlines but numerous investment firms are active in the market, each competing with each other and the public real estate investment trusts for investment opportunities. more...

Heitman Fund Targets $2B in Acquisitions

CHICAGO-Heitman LLC, headquartered here, has closed its Heitman Value Partners II fund with $800 million of equity commitments from 20 clients and $15 million of its own capital. Heitman expects to acquire more than $2.4 billion in real estate within three years, says Maury Tognarelli, president and CEO. Heitman partner Tom McCarthy will oversee the fund.

The focus of the fund will be value-add properties, Tognarelli tells GlobeSt.com. Heitman “is looking to achieve (leveraged) returns that are in the 12% to 14% range net of all costs,” he says. The fund will invest in a variety of property types including residential, office, industrial, retail and specialty sectors such as medical office, student housing and self-storage facilities. Heitman will focus on the US, Canada and Mexico for acquisitions. more...

$100M Equity Play Eyes Tail-End Buys, Bail-Out

...Behringer Harvard's been heavily investing this year in class A multifamily and new student housing, but it's uncertain if any acquisitions to date will be rolled to the JV, Jason Mattox, the Dallas-based investment group's executive vice president, tells GlobeSt.com. more...

Debt Driving Market More Than Equity, Says Dune Founder

... Furthermore, he said, money is available across the board of property categories. "Debt doesn’t tend to differentiate between product type," Neidich said, noting that plenty of debt is available "not just on traditional institutional real estate, but really whatever you can call real estate." He cited non-traditional investments like senior and student housing as two examples of property types where debt is now ample. more...