Westwind Capital, a recently launched platform targeting Life Sciences & Innovation and the Living sectors, is about to close on its first investment shortly, according to founder and CEO Daniel Gorzawski.
Gorzawski, who for years ran the European business of Harrison Street, said the group has a pan-European investment approach but it is currently focusing on Germany, France, Spain, Ireland and the UK.
‘We are advancing on a number of investment opportunities and we should be able to make an announcement shortly,’ he told PropertyEU in an interview.
Westwind Capital focuses on Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA), Build-to-Rent (BTR) residential, as well as Micro-Living and Co-Living. Gorzawski believes that these asset classes represent relatively immature and fragmented markets in Europe characterised by structural undersupply and underpinned by strong demographic growth drivers, such as urbanisation and societal changes which support long term and diverse occupancy.
He sees strong demand from institutional investors for high quality stabilised assets in these sectors and plans to adopt an aggregation strategy to capture operational and capital market efficiencies from building out portfolios.
Daniel Gorzawski, founding partner and CEO of Westwind Capital, commented: ‘We are very excited about the opportunities in the life sciences sector. Europe looks like the US seven or eight years ago, with a structurally undersupplied sector at a time when an aging population and increased life expectancy are increasing demand for healthcare R&D. Also, both government support and massive private contributions are driving the sector and, if we look at the US, NOI growth in this market segment has been significantly higher than for offices over the last 15-20 years. Similarly, we expect European life sciences will show superior NOI growth as well and will follow a similar development over time.’
Westwind Capital will focus on direct investments through joint ventures with operating partners and developers, but will also consider debt and special situations. It plans to embed ESG in the investment and asset management process with all potential transactions evaluated through a sustainability lens, while ongoing ESG opportunities will be factored into asset-level business plans.
At Harrison Street, Gorzawski oversaw the construction of a €3 bn portfolio that included over 16,000 student beds, 2,600 residential units and over 185,806 m2 of life sciences space across five countries.
Before joining Harrison Street, Gorzawski spent nine years at AIG Global Real Estate, including as a managing director.
