Real estate executives and consulting partners are leaving comfy homes at established companies to strike out on their own.
Part of the driving force to own their own firms is a ready source of capital from institutions eager to invest in the asset class, but with individuals who can demonstrate a track record, consultants say. Also, many executives from the established firms raising billion-dollar funds are fleeing the constraints of having to put so much money to work.
Some of the real estate firms spawned in the last 18 months include:
• Rockpoint Group LLC, Boston, formed by five partners from Westbrook Real Estate Partners;
• Cyburt Hall Partners LLC, Los Angeles, formed by the former head of Boeing Realty Corp. and a former managing partner for the real estate advisory practice of Ernst & Young;
• Dune Capital Management LP, New York, founded by Steven T. Mnuchin, formerly chief executive officer of SFM Capital Management LP., a Soros Fund Management affiliate, and Daniel M. Neidich, former managing director of Goldman, Sachs & Co. and chairman of the investment committee at its real estate unit, Whitehall Funds.
• Arsenal Real Estate Funds LLC, Morristown, N.J., formed by a group of executives from Prudential Real Estate Investors.
• Embarcadero Capital Partners LLC, Burlingame, Calif., formed by a former executive from Shorenstein Co. and two William Wilson & Associates executives
• BayNorth Capital LLC, Boston, formed by the real estate group of Charlesbank Capital Partners LLC.