Gaw Capital's US fund fully invested after Oakland Marriott buy

Gaw Capital Partners’ second US value-added real estate fund is fully invested, having acquired the Oakland Marriott City Center in San Francisco.

The Hong Kong-headquartered fund manager said it had deployed all of the US$315m (€280m) raised in 2015 for its US Value Add Fund II.

The Oakland Marriott complex, located in San Francisco Bay Area, includes a 21-storey hotel with 500 guest rooms.

Goodwin Gaw, managing principal and founder of Gaw Capital Partners, said: “The fund has completed 12 successful investments in the office and hospitality sectors in the US over the past three years.”

Among its acquisitions are the Public Hotel in Chicago, Hilton Del Mar near San Diego, Courtyard Oakland in downtown Oakland, and Graduate Hotels.

The Graduate Hotels is a platform of 10 boutique hotels, with 1,544 rooms located within the vicinity of US college campuses.

It also owns the MacArthur special events centre in Los Angeles and offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Portland.

The fund’s predecessor, a club investment vehicle, was launched in 2012 with US$110m of capital.

Nine of the 12 investments of the first fund have been sold, with a realised internal rate of return of 35%.

Roman Nemtsov, chief operating officer of Gaw Capital’s US subsidiary, said: “The main strategy of our US funds is to create value through design, creative repositioning and redevelopment in key US cities that are characterised by young professionals and above-average long-term population and employment growth prospects.”