REAL ESTATE TECHNOLOGY, REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT
Businesswire | April 27, 2023
Columbia Threadneedle Investments today announced the expansion of its exchange-traded fund (ETF) suite with the launch of the Columbia Research Enhanced Real Estate ETF (NYSE Arca: CRED). Designed for investors seeking a thoughtfully constructed and accessible way to gain exposure to the real estate sector, the strategy incorporates the firm’s research intensity and proprietary insights in real estate in a cost-effective vehicle.
“Real estate has long played an important role in portfolio diversification, and there are many ways to access the asset class across the liquidity spectrum,” said Marc Zeitoun, Head of Strategic Beta. “With the launch of CRED, we are offering investors and allocators a differentiated, research-driven way to improve their benchmark exposures to real estate.”
CRED, which tracks a custom, proprietary index, is designed to outperform the FTSE Nareit All Equity REITs Index through research-driven security selection and modified market cap weighting that emphasizes income and geographic opportunity. This weighting approach directly addresses financial advisor preferences towards real estate investing expressed in a recent Columbia Threadneedle Investments survey, which found that income diversification and generation were among the top three reasons why financial advisors allocate to real estate. In terms of advisor due diligence, the survey also found that 9-in-10 of financial advisors consider underlying geographic exposure when investing in Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) strategies.
Managed by Christopher Lo and Henry Hom, portfolio managers in Columbia Threadneedle’s Managed and Indexed Portfolio Solutions team, CRED is designed to serve as a core allocation to the U.S. real estate sector in an investment portfolio. The ETF will track the firm’s proprietary Beta Advantage® Lionstone Research Enhanced REIT Index, which typically consists of 70-90 REITs weighted across eight sectors, including Specialized, Industrial, Diversified, Hotel & Resort, Residential, Retail, Office, and Health Care REITs. This custom index represents the first collaboration on a strategic beta solution between Columbia Threadneedle Investments and its institutional real estate investment subsidiary, Lionstone Investments.
“Columbia Threadneedle has significant global real estate investment capabilities that span the entire capital structure, and we are committed to offering this expertise in a variety of solutions, from strategic beta to direct real estate investment, to suit specific client needs,” added Zeitoun.
About Columbia Threadneedle Investments
Columbia Threadneedle Investments is a leading global asset manager that provides a broad range of investment strategies and solutions for individual, institutional and corporate clients around the world. With more than 2,500 people, including over 650 investment professionals based in North America, Europe and Asia, we manage $608 billion of assets across developed and emerging market equities, fixed income, asset allocation solutions and alternatives.
Columbia Threadneedle Investments is the global asset management group of Ameriprise Financial, Inc. (NYSE: AMP).
Columbia Threadneedle Investments (Columbia Threadneedle) is the global brand name of the Columbia and Threadneedle group of companies.
About Lionstone Investments
Lionstone Investments is a data-analytics driven real estate investment firm that conceptualizes, analyzes, and executes national investment strategies using proprietary algorithms and advanced analytics to strategically pinpoint the locations where innovation, economic vitality, and productivity intersect to create sustainable and vibrant communities. Generating smart insight via sophisticated analytic tools, Lionstone is able to identify the highest concentrations of growth and productivity in the U.S. economy. This unique approach finds durable growth and resilient income in a rapidly evolving world. Lionstone Investments is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Columbia Management Investment Advisers, LLC.
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REAL ESTATE TECHNOLOGY, MORTGAGE AND LENDING
Businesswire | April 03, 2023
Clarion Partners Real Estate Income Fund Inc. has provided a mezzanine loan to a joint venture between BentallGreenOak and Slate Property Group to refinance the existing loan and fund additional renovations on a multifamily property known as The Biltmore* in New York City. The mortgage has been provided by Affinius Capital.
Located at the northeast corner of 8th Avenue and West 47th Street in Manhattan, The Biltmore was developed in 2003; it is comprised of a total of 464 residential units, 34,626 square feet of commercial space and a 61-space parking garage.
“The Biltmore was a particular opportunity to lend on an existing stabilized multifamily property in Midtown Manhattan, a core market which has demonstrated resilience,” said Managing Director and Clarion Partners Real Estate Income Fund Portfolio Manager Janet Souk. “Most importantly, we are pleased to provide financing to The Biltmore’s experienced sponsors, who will use the funds to complete strategic upgrades for the property’s varied tenants.”
Since BentallGreenOak and Slate Property Group acquired the property in 2018, the joint venture has invested over $30 million to renovate apartment units, upgrade the lobby and amenities, modernize the building’s elevators and complete façade repairs.
Clarion Partners, a leading U.S. real estate investment manager, is part of Franklin Templeton’s alternatives business, which spans a broad range of strategies, including real estate, private credit, hedge funds and secondary private equity and co-investments with approximately $257 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2022.
About Clarion Partners Real Estate Income Fund Inc.
The Fund offers individual investors direct access to a portfolio of privately-held, income-producing commercial real estate properties through an innovative investment fund driven by Clarion's deep real estate expertise. The Fund is a non-diversified, closed-end management investment company that continuously offers its common stock. The Fund's investment manager, Legg Mason Partners Fund Advisor, LLC is an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Franklin Resources, Inc. (“Franklin Resources") and the fund's investment sub-adviser, Clarion Partners, is an indirect, majority-owned subsidiary of Franklin Resources. In addition, the Fund's securities sub-adviser, Western Asset Management, also is an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Franklin Resources. Hard copies of the Fund's complete audited financial statements are available free of charge upon request. More information about the Fund is available at CPREIF.com.
About Clarion Partners
Clarion Partners, an SEC registered investment adviser with FCA-authorized and FINRA member affiliates, has been a leading U.S. real estate investment manager for 40 years. Headquartered in New York, the firm maintains strategically located offices across the United States and Europe. With $82.4 billion in total assets under management, Clarion Partners offers a broad range of real estate strategies across the risk/return spectrum to its 500 domestic and international institutional investors. More information about the firm is available at www.clarionpartners.com.
About Franklin Templeton
Franklin Resources, Inc. is a global investment management organization with subsidiaries operating as Franklin Templeton and serving clients in over 155 countries. Franklin Templeton’s mission is to help clients achieve better outcomes through investment management expertise, wealth management and technology solutions. Through its specialist investment managers, the company offers specialization on a global scale, bringing extensive capabilities in fixed income, equity, alternatives and multi-asset solutions. With offices in more than 30 countries and approximately 1,300 investment professionals, the California-based company has over 75 years of investment experience and approximately $1.4 trillion in assets under management as of February 28, 2023. For more information, please visit franklinresources.com and follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.
About Slate Property Group
Slate Property Group is a vertically integrated owner, operator, and developer of residential and commercial real estate in the New York metropolitan area. From adaptive reuse and repositioning of existing assets to ground-up development, the Slate team leverages extensive experience in the residential asset class, in-house teams dedicated to the separate phases of a real estate investment, and a regimented approach towards executing a business plan to seek superior risk-adjusted returns for its investors. Over the last decade, the principals of Slate Property Group have purchased in excess of $6.4 billion in real estate assets totaling over 10,000 units across over 50 investments. In order to continue the successful execution of the existing and future real estate projects, Slate employs an experienced and educated team with over 115 full-time employees across its various arms.
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REAL ESTATE TECHNOLOGY, REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT
Businesswire | May 09, 2023
EasyKnock, the first technology-enabled residential sale-leaseback platform, today announced its acquisition of Ribbon, a pioneer of powerbuying and cash offer solutions. The transaction is a major milestone for the real estate industry, bringing together homebuying, homeselling, and agent solutions into one unified and simplified experience.
“We are thrilled to bring Ribbon and EasyKnock’s cutting edge financial products together under one roof to provide more options and a competitive advantage to consumers and industry partners nation-wide,” said Jarred Kessler, CEO and co-founder of EasyKnock. “This marks the beginning of a new wave of innovation in the real estate sector, the advent of PropTech 3.0. By combining these product suites and offering solutions for every stop along the homeownership journey, we are better positioned to responsibly empower more families with the financial flexibility and control they need to achieve their goals.”
In bringing the teams together, EasyKnock is accelerating the development of its marketplace planned to launch later this year; a new, more fulsome suite of products and services that will offer consumers alternative ways to buy and sell, finance new homes, and utilize their equity in one place. Recognizing that a new way is needed, the marketplace will benefit everyday Americans with convenience, cost savings, and the competitive edge afforded by the combination of multiple services, positively impacting not only existing and prospective homeowners, but the industry altogether.
“Making homeownership achievable has been Ribbon’s mission and guiding light since its inception. EasyKnock and Ribbon share a vision of enhancing consumer choice in the industry, facilitating its success and enabling a more simplified buying and selling experience.” said Shaival Shah, CEO and co-founder of Ribbon. “We are thrilled to come together with EasyKnock and their pioneering sale-leaseback offering to provide solutions to more and more people. Combined with Ribbon’s award-winning homebuying solutions and network of 90,000 agents and lenders, we are motivated to empower consumers across the country.”
Both EasyKnock and Ribbon have forged strong partnerships in residential real estate by using best-in–class technology that connects consumers with loan officers, real estate agents, and other participants in the homebuying and home selling experience. Following the acquisition, the EasyKnock and Ribbon teams will work with strategic partners to bring their expanded product suite to key markets with an eye towards national expansion.
Goodwin Proctor, a global law firm, acted as legal advisor and Temple View Capital, a Bethesda, Maryland-based business purpose lender, provided financing on the transaction. Terms were not disclosed.
About EasyKnock
EasyKnock is the first-to-market, technology-enabled residential sale-leaseback company in the U.S. Through innovative and accessible solutions, American homeowners who sell their property to EasyKnock can remain in their homes as renters while still getting the cash they need to pursue their financial goals. Headquartered in New York City and founded in 2016, EasyKnock has team members nationwide working to help homeowners unlock their financial freedom through non-loan programs so they can pay off debts, buy their dream home, fund a venture, and more - all while maintaining the ability to stay in their homes and communities. For more information, please visit www.easyknock.com.
About Ribbon
Founded in 2017 in New York and Charlotte, Ribbon is on a mission to make homeownership achievable. Ribbon allows everyday families to compete on a level playing field with high-net-worth individuals and institutional buyers by upgrading their offers to winning RibbonCash Offers. As the leading real estate technology platform, Ribbon empowers agents, brokerages, and lenders to create a world-class experience for homebuyers and sellers through powerful financial products and digital workflow software.
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