Mark Capital Management, a pan-European real estate investment manager, has achieved a final close for the latest vehicle in its urban logistics fund series, Crossbay.
Crossbay II has secured €660 mln in total fund commitments, representing a 20% increase in fund size compared to the predecessor vehicle. Including debt financing, Crossbay II has a total investment capacity of over €1.5 bn, which will be deployed and managed by Crossbay’s on-the-ground teams across the major markets in Europe.
New investors include pension funds, pension insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds and family offices from across Europe, Asia and the US. Returning investors include CBRE Investment Management Indirect Real Estate Strategies, the fund’s largest investor.
The fund is on target to be over 60% committed by year-end, with a specific focus on existing single-user distribution centres in urban locations within European gateway cities where supply-demand imbalances are most acute.
Including near-term pipeline, Crossbay II currently manages €1 bn in assets, with investments in the UK, France, the Benelux region, Germany, Spain and Italy.
Mark Capital Management first started investing in urban logistics in 2018. Crossbay I, the manager’s first dedicated urban logistics fund, secured €550 mln in equity commitments and is fully realised after a successful exit in 2022.
Crossbay is led by CEO Marco Riva, previously of Logicor, with sourcing and asset management capabilities executed by on-the-ground logistics experts in each of the markets in which Crossbay operates.
Riva commented: ‘The fundraise will allow us to aggregate fundamentally granular and hard-to-access assets to create a second institutional-grade portfolio. We have been tactically deploying throughout this period and are already almost 60% committed, giving investors in the fund exposure to what we believe will prove to be an exceptional vintage for a strategy like ours.’
Crossbay chairman and Mark Capital Management CEO Marcus Meijer added: ‘While there is a brightening macro-economic outlook and clear tailwinds behind urban logistics, we recognise uncertainty remains and so would like to thank our investors for placing their trust in us.
‘We are seeing enhanced investor appetite to work with specialist managers raising tactical funds with a tight thematic focus to access growth opportunities within real estate. This was the rationale behind our pivot away from diversified funds and into sector-specific strategies like Crossbay, with the latest fund surpassing the last in size and attracting a more geographically diverse investor base, positioning us well for our next fundraise.’
A spokesperson from a US-based family office investor said: ‘Crossbay II represented the opportunity to work with a market-leading team and so made sense to partner with them for our maiden commitment to a European logistics real estate fund. The performance we have seen so far has been strong, which gives us continued confidence in the strategy.’
