Bouwinvest Real Estate Investors intends to invest a further $350m (€300m) in North America in the next two years and has appointed Bert van den Hoek to lead its new international office in New York.

Senior portfolio manager Van den Hoek, who joined Bouwinvest at the beginning of this year, will lead the company’s effort to grow the firm’s $1.65bn North America investments to $2bn at the end of 2022. Bouwinvest has been active in North America since 2010.

Van den Hoek has international experience in both Europe and the US with Partners Group, Deutsche Bank, PGGM, GIC, Morgan Stanley and Westbrook Partners.

Stephen Tross, CIO international investments, said: “We see great opportunities to build on our already substantial North American investments in coming years, with a particular focus on sustainable investments taking advantage of the secular growth trends we have identified and which only seem to have strengthened during COVID-19.”

New York is the second international satellite office Bouwinvest has opened in the past 18 months, after Sydney for the Asia-Pacific markets, and demonstrates a strong commitment to our local operating partners and the appetite of Dutch pension funds for sustainable real estate strategies in North America, Tross said.

”We are very pleased with the performance of our Sydney office and believe Bouwinvest’s New York base will also strengthen our ability to source investments and extend our North American network of relationships.”

Bouwinvest’s international mandates in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific currently account for $4.3bn in invested capital and it has another $1.65bn in entrusted capital for these three regions. The company plans to raise the international total to over $5.9bn in the next few years.

Gijs Plantinga, director North American investments, said: “With this second international office, we have made an important step towards further diversifying our international portfolio and boosting the share of international investments in Bouwinvest’s total investments.

“We look forward to building on our existing, as well as new relationships, and maintaining our investment momentum across the North American market.”