REAL ESTATE - Rubenstein Partners has attracted a total equity raise of $475 million (€378m) for its commingled fund, Rubenstein Properties Fund, L.P.

The investors in the fund were a mixture of corporate pension funds, educational endowments and rich people. There was a $25m co-investment made by the fund sponsors. This included David Rubenstein, Dean Adler, Ira Lubert and the senior management team of Rubenstein Partners.

The commingled fund will have a total capitalization of $1.6bn. This happens as the fund manager will be 70% leverage on the fund. There are no assets in the investment fund at this time.

Chief operating officer Eric Schiela said: “People in our company have a lot of experience in the office market. We have a lot of contacts with banks, lenders and owners on where deals are happening.

“All of the work on the properties will be done by our company. We have an in-house management and leasing operation. There will be no third party fees paid to other companies.”

Elsewhere, Edens & Avant has decided to bring its retail investment strategy to South Florida by opening up a regional office in Miami.

The company’s CEO Terry Brown said: “Florida is a major growth market. There are 16-17m people living in the state. Around 1,000 people a day are moving to Florida. We think that a big part of the growth will be in the southern part of the state.

“We would like to invest $500m to $1bn in the South Florida region over the next 36 to 48 months.”

The company has hired Jami Passer as a vice president for South Florida. She was previously a partner and consultant with P3 Partners, a South Florida real estate advisory firm.

Edens is now a $3bn company, with capital from three large institutional investors. The Michigan Department of Treasury has 34% while JP Morgan Asset Management and the New York State Teachers Retirement System also have stakes.

Meanwhile, Principal Real Estate Investors has come together with Trammell Crow Company to form a joint venture to develop new office buildings in a variety of markets around the US in $350m venture.