Global real estate private equity firm, Asia Capital Real Estate (ACRE), announced Tuesday that Almanac Realty Investors, the private real estate investment arm of Neuberger Berman, had made a $320 million capital commitment to funds managed by ACRE.
The investment will provide anchor investments for ACRE’s upcoming series of real estate private equity and debt funds, which will be focused on multifamily investments.
ACRE aims to invest over $2bn through its planned equity funds, and has already deployed over $300m in loans, with the support of Almanac and other investors.
“We’re very pleased to have an asset management firm as prominent as Neuberger Berman invest in ACRE with a commitment of this magnitude and equally honoured to partner with Almanac’s experienced and highly respected team to help grow our platform and broaden our relationships with institutional investors and allocators,” said ACRE Founding Partner Les Menkes.
Almanac’s $320m commitment follows a volatile year in the commercial real estate market, with disruption brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. ACRE focuses on multi-family lending and on developing value-added workforce and affordable housing in key growth markets across the US. The company sees itself as offering investors an alternative to sectors that have been hit badly by the pandemic, such as offices, non-essential retail and hospitality.
“The uncertainty of the current economic climate has had acute effects for commercial real estate, which is causing many investors to seek out funds with a more secure risk-return profile,” said ACRE Founding Partner Michael Van Der Poel. “Middle-market multifamily assets offer a more stable long-term outlook than many other areas of the market, and sponsors are growing increasingly aware of the asset class’s merits and differentiating factors.”
Commenting on their investment, Justin Hakimian, Managing Director at Almanac said, “ACRE has a successful track record in the multifamily sector, spanning equity and credit investments and property management, which in combination with positive long-term fundamentals in the multifamily space should lend itself to both attractive real estate opportunities as well as the continued growth of a best-in-class, vertically-integrated multifamily platform.”
Almanac Realty Investors was acquired by, Neuberger Berman, in January 2020 to deepen the global investment manager’s offering of real estate solutions. Founded in 1996, Almanac partners with established owner-operators in all sectors of the real estate market to raise capital for company growth. The firm has committed more than $6.1bn to 46 real estate companies, both public and private, throughout North America.
Founded in 2011, ACRE has invested over $2.7 billion through a series of private equity and debt funds, concentrated in multifamily related strategies. Managing and developing assets in the US, Southeast Asia the UK, the firm has offices in Atlanta, New York and Singapore.
Since its inception, ACRE has acquired, operated, developed and made loans on over 22,000 apartments across 75 properties and 31 cities.
