ING Clarion sets up $1bn office venture

ING Clarion sets up $1bn office venture

REAL ESTATE- ING Clarion Partners and Trammell Crow Co. have created a joint venture to develop $1bn (€744m) worth of new office buildings across the US in the next five years.

The debt to equity ratio for the venture is 75%-25%. There will be a total of around $250m to $300m worth of equity in the venture. The vast majority of the equity will be supplied by ING Clarion. This will be done for a variety of commingled fund and separate account pension fund clients.

Doug Bowen, managing director at ING Clarion, said: "The timing is right now to start a program like this. Both job growth and leasing activity is on the upswing in many major markets across the country.

"Some markets are seeing rent increases. We will have to be careful with operating expenses given how much the cost of materials has increased over the past couple of years."

There are two projects that have already been set for the JV. One is the Max at Kierland development in Scottsdale, Ariz. This is a 257,000 s.f. class A facility that will cost $65m to construct. The other project is Innovation Village in suburban Los Angeles. This will be a multi-phase development.