Hawkeye Partners has placed a $175m (€148.3m) investment with Blue Moon Capital Partners for its new senior housing investment platform.
The capital will be placed into the Blue Moon Senior Housing I fund, in which the manager is making an undisclosed co-investment.
Hawkeye is investing for its Scout Fund II, its first deal for the fund.
Blue Moon will invest the capital from Hawkeye and then raise additional capital through a series of funds.
Over the next two years, Senior Housing I will buy existing value-add assets or develop new senior housing properties in the US, including independent and assisted living properties.
Claudia Faust, managing partner with Hawkeye, said: “Senior housing is a property type institutional investors have limited exposure to and one where the fundamentals should remain favourable for the foreseeable future.”
Blue Moon will invest in properties that can produce IRRs above 20%, with leverage on a portfolio basis not exceeding 65%.
The areas on the East and West Coasts are attractive due to their population concentrations, according to Kathryn Sweeney, managing partner at Blue Moon.
“There also is the fact the middle part of the country has a supply/demand imbalance,” she added.
Scout Fund II, which had a final closing in March last year, raised $533m directly and $100m in a co-investment side-car vehicle.
It has attracted capital from some large US public pension funds, including a $75m commitment from the State of Wisconsin Investment Board, $50m from the Teacher Retirement System of Texas and $30m from the Pennsylvania State Employees Retirement System.
Scout Fund II, which typically invests $150m-175m per manager, has a two-year investment period from its final closing to find managers for the fund.
