Commercial Real Estate Finance

Posts Tagged ‘carlyle group’

It’s an inevitable part of any real estate cycle: as one asset class loses strength, another grows to accommodate the shift in market demand and capital flow. Even though the downturn of 2008-09 had a devastating effect on every industry but “Cash 4 Gold,” it had a very disproportionate effect on real estate’s different sectors. Likewise, the pace of recovery for these property types has been inconsistent to say the least.

While there are a great many factors to any market change, good or bad, one of the conditions affecting (weakening) our current recovery is, without question, America’s changing population. The younger generation (“Echo Boomers,” or whatever else you want to call them) are quick to say, “The Baby Boomers created this mess,” but they may fail to see how badly many of their parents’ generation were harmed by the recession. As is traditional in this country, a large part of one’s nest egg is the house you own; when that loses value, the inability to sell or sell at a profit leaves very little on which to retire.

This, coupled with the fact that medical science has everyone living longer (with frightening implications for Social Security, among other things), means it is now much more expensive to retire. While echo boomers (like myself) have indeed inherited a challenging economy–a lower-income, rent-don’t-own sort of society–we’re not the only ones who have to grapple with it. Read the rest of this entry »

Mensch:

Noun, informal. A decent, upright, mature and responsible person.

Schlemiel:

Noun, slang. An awkward, clumsy, or unlucky person whose endeavors tend to fail; a loser.

Mensch of the Week:

Douglas Kinney, Carlyle Group

Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG)’s newest hire is our Mensch of the Week. Douglas Kinney, a former executive with Greenhill & Co. (NYSE: GHC), has joined the Washington, D.C.-based alternative asset firm as its managing director for international real estate fundraising. Carlyle Group is an enormous fund manager, with assets reportedly in excess of $150 billion, so the fact that this extremely powerful firm (whose previous employees include numerous world leaders) is strengthening its real estate fundraising team is excellent news for the global real estate industry.

As PERE News reports:

 The move is seen as a successful stroke for Carlyle’s investor relations team, which expanded in the run-up to the firm’s initial public offering in May and in the wake of raising $2.3 billion for the firm’s sixth US real estate fund, Carlyle Realty Partners VI, in December. According to two people familiar with the matter, Carlyle is expected to launch an Asia-focused real estate fund in the very near future and possibly another US vehicle.  Read the rest of this entry »

Week in Review for September 1 – 7:

- A recent CoStar Group report shows strong growth in office and other commercial real estate demand among markets in the western U.S., particularly San Francisco, Seattle, and parts of Texas. The West and Southwest were among the worse casualties of the housing crisis and recession, but growth in the technology and energy sectors may be speeding their recovery.

- Though the government is attempting to wind down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, some speculate that proposed regulatory changes may spur many toward residential mortgage investments guaranteed by the GSEs.

- PhillyDeals‘ Joe DiStefano reports alternative investment giant Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) has purchased a number of Wilmington, Delaware plants from chemical company DuPont. Carlyle’s $4.9 billion deal follows another recent industrial acquisition in the area: the Sunoco oil refinery in South Philadelphia.

- Timber REIT Weyerhaeuser (NYSE: WY) benefits from the gradual growth of the U.S housing market. Because the majority of the REIT’s income is generated by the housing industry, Weyerhaeuser was badly hurt by the recent housing crisis.

- Construction continues for the new headquarters of pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. The development of this new office campus in South Philadelphia has been spearheaded by the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation and Liberty Property Trust (NYSE: LRY). Read the rest of this entry »

Based on research by Towers Watson and the Financial Times, here is a ranking of the Top 10 Alternative Investment Managers of CRE Capital:

 10. Morgan Stanley (Amount under management, in billions: $56.4)

9. RREEF Alternatives ($57.4)

8. UBS Global Asset Management ($60.0)

7. Bridgewater Associates ($76.1)

6. BlackRock ($77.3)

5. Goldman Sachs ($78.0)

4. Brookfield Asset Management ($84.3) Read the rest of this entry »

From the PERE 30, here is a list of the Top 10 Fundraisers in the Past 5 years:

10. LaSalle Investment Management

9. Westbrook Partners

8. Beacon Capital Partners

7. Lone Star Funds

6. The Carlyle Group

5. Colony Capital  Read the rest of this entry »

Week in Review for April 7 – 13:

- Washington, D.C.-based alternatives manager Carlyle Group prepares for an IPO, which Reuters predicts could fetch as much as $800 million. The initial public offering would bring 10% of its management company to the public.

-  The first quarter of 2012 saw a decline in U.S. CRE demand. However, analysts point out, diminishing inventory has softened the impact of this decline.

- After years of growth, big-box stores are losing their appeal for many retailers. This is a consequence of increasing online shopping, which has forced the closures of Circuit City and, more recently, Sears, Kmart, and Best Buy locations. Even retail giants like Target (TGT) and Wal-Mart (WMT) are moving toward smaller-scale retail stores.

- In Washington, D.C., upgrades to Union Station are expected to benefit the area’s nearby commercial tenants.

Read the rest of this entry »

Just several years after the housing crisis devastated the home construction industry, people are discussing the chance of a rebound:

Read the rest of this entry »

On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to join Llenrock Group in attending the monthly Philadelphia-area meeting of the Cornell Real Estate Council. Among the many Cornellians in attendance was the event’s speaker, Thad Paul, who currently serves as a principal in the real estate branch of private equity giant Carlyle Group.

The Q & A brought up issues from all areas of the commercial real estate market, including favored assets, zombie properties, European investment, cap rates, and candid views on various markets and employment growth. Mr. Paul’s discussion offered an interesting counterpoint for this blogger, who has been writing a great deal on massive, publicly traded companies (many of them REITs), but much less on private equity firms.

Read the rest of this entry »

The PERE 30 (from Private Equity Real Estate Magazine) revealed that the top 30 real estate private equity firms raised $211.9 billion over the past five years, up from $190 billion as calculated by last year’s ranking. Listed are the top 10 largest real estate private equity firms.

As a note: the top two largest firms raised $25.6 billion and $20.15 billion respectively in dedicated real estate funds between January 2004 and April, 2009. Together the pair raised a fifth of all the direct-investment capital secured by the world’s 30 largest real estate private equity firms.

10. Westbrook Capital Partners
Westbrook has raised and invested $10 billion of equity in over $35 billion of real estate transactions in major markets throughout the world. Westbrook’s investment equity is committed by a broad base of institutional investors, which includes public and private pension funds, endowments, foundations, and financial institutions.

9. The Carlyle Group
The Carlyle Group is one of the world’s largest private equity firms, with more than $87.9 billion under management with funds across four investment disciplines (buyouts, growth capital, real estate and leveraged finance). Carlyle has committed more than $3.6 billion of its own capital to its funds.
Read the rest of this entry »