Chad Pike, former head of real estate investing in Europe at Blackstone and later global co-head of RE, is back in the fund management business with the launch of a new firm.
Makarora is a New York-based company that will initially target US opportunities private debt and equity opportunities and also those in the public markets.
Also on board is former AllianceBernstein professional, Adam Brooks, who is partner and co-founder at Makarora as part of an initial 12-strong team. The firm could grow to upwards of 40 staff and is expected to launch a first fund in 2024 with a target of billions of dollars, according to reports.
Pike worked at Blackstone for 25 years, and from London was co-head of real estate globally between 2005 and 2011 before Jon Gray took sole charge of the business unit. Pike was later tasked with co-leading the firm’s Tactical Opportunities division. He left Blackstone in 2020 to concentrate of his private leisure business, Grassy Creek, and Eleven Capital Management.
Makarora has published a memorandum explaining how it sees the current opportunity in a similar vein to the US Savings & Loans crisis of the 1980s and first half of the 1990s, which launched the careers of several US private equity real estate luminaries such as Thomas Barrack.
