Thomas Muller joined BlackRock as managing director and portfolio manager within its European real estate business, a spokeswoman said.
The position is new. Mr. Muller works with BlackRock’s real estate teams in the U.K., Germany, France, Denmark and Poland on value-added strategies across the region, covering the repositioning, rebuilding and recapitalizing of real estate.
“Real estate is a critical component of many institutional portfolios, and we are seeing increased investor demand for European real estate exposures that provide income and capital growth,” said Tom Lee, managing director and head of European real estate at BlackRock, in a statement.
BlackRock’s real estate business manages more than $23 billion in private and public real estate equity and debt.
Mr. Muller was a senior vice president in the London office of Partners Group and had a lead role in the firm’s primary and direct European real estate business, said a spokeswoman for the firm. She said Mr. Muller left at the end of 2014. The spokeswoman added that he was replaced by Lars Kreutzmann, who joined the European real estate team in January as a senior vice president, also based in London. She said Partners Group is still expanding its European real estate team, and there will be further hires this year.