CANADA – LaSalle Investment Management has completed a first close of its latest Canadian fund, the LaSalle Canadian Income and Growth Fund IV.
After eight months of fundraising, the fund closed at CAD110m (€72.6m), with commitments from four Canadian institutional investors.
To date, all the investors in LaSalle’s Canadian funds have been domestic, according to Zelick Altman, managing director and head of LaSalle’s Canadian business.
“This demonstrates Canadian investors’ confidence the Canadian market will continue to give opportunities,” he told IP Real Estate.
In addition, there are some issues that make it difficult for non-Canadians to invest alongside Canadians, including taxation and alignment of objectives.
The fund is targeting value-add opportunities in office, retail, industrial and multifamily in Canada’s six largest metropolitan areas – Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.
Explaining this broad target, Altman said “part of our strategy is to be diversified by product type and geographically”.
“We are looking for properties that have decent income characteristics but still offer the opportunity to increase and stabilise income by active asset management,” he said.
They will look at properties with vacancies or with leases rolling over, or properties that can be renovated and improved.
“For every property, we have a strategy,” Altman said said.
The fund has already started looking at properties and expects to announce its first acquisition around March.
While the fund is now concentrating on finding investments, it will begin its next round of fundraising shortly.
It has 12 months from the first close to secure other commitments.
