Under Carlos Vaz’s leadership, CONTI Capital has launched four multifamily investment funds. The most recent, CONTI RE High-Growth Fund IV, made its first acquisition earlier this week: a 300-unit new construction asset in northeast Austin dubbed Pioneer Hill which was completed in 2021. WMRE talked to Vas about how this new fund differs from the firm’s previous ones and why becoming an RIA is in the plans for the firm’s future.

You can read the full transcript of our conversation with Vas here.

Investors have already committed about $590 million in equity to Hines U.S. Property Recovery Fund—the money gives the fund the capacity to invest $1.5 billion immediately. Hines plans to close the fund by May 2022 with a total investment of $1 billion, with a purchasing power of $2.5 billion after leverage.

The fund has already bought assets like a trailer park in California with plans to redevelop it as industrial. Other projects might redevelop empty malls as mixed-use town centers or redevelop aging office buildings as apartments.

So why does Hines believe now is a good time for a fund focused on redevelopment? And why is Hines so interested in small, equity investments from investors like family offices and high-net worth individuals?

To find out, read our interview with Alfonso Munk, Hines’ Chief Investment Officer – Americas, here.

Founded in 2015 by Tony Grosso and Chris Palermo with a property-agnostic investment strategy, FNRP now invests exclusively in necessity retail. The firm owns approximately 50 grocery-anchored properties in 19 states. The portfolio, totaling 7.5 million sq. ft., is valued in excess of $1 billion.

And now, just a couple of weeks into 2022, FNRP is anticipating another big year. With several deals already under contract, the firm’s growth will likely include new markets and new investors—perhaps even an institutional partner or two.

We recently spoke with Chris Palermo and Jared Feldman about the firm’s investment strategy and its plans for the new year.

You can read the full Q&A here.

Palladius Capital Management launched its first fund, Palladius Real Estate Fund I, in July 2021. Dedicated to multifamily and student housing and focused on the value-add space, the fund has a target raise of $100 million. As of mid-January, it was 85 percent deployed and will likely be fully deployed toward the end of March.

The firm has acquired three properties and has two additional assets under contract and scheduled to close in the first quarter of 2022 for a total of about 1,400 units in Illinois and Texas. The properties include: a 624-unit garden-style multifamily asset; a 136-unit garden-style multifamily asset; a 178-unit multifamily asset; a 240-unit, 672-bed student housing property built in 2005; and a 15-story mixed-use tower with 234 apartment units and townhomes with ground-floor retail. 

WMRE recently spoke to Palladius founder Nitin Chexal about the firm’s fund-raising and deployment strategies and its plans for the future.

The full Q&A is available here.

Boutique real estate firm Edgewater has launched its largest private equity real estate fund to date. The $100 million Edgewater Real Estate Growth and Income Fund LP is relatively small compared to some commercial real estate industry mega-funds. Yet Edgewater views their business model as one that fits nicely into a gap in the market. They are targeting smaller metros that are bypassed by bigger investors, and their hands-on management helps uncover value-add opportunities in markets that tend to be dominated by fragmented ownership.

WMRE recently talked with Edgewater’s founding partners Robert M. Brier and Ketan Vora to hear more about the firm’s investment strategy and the opportunities they are finding to acquire assets in smaller metros.

Read the full interview here.