Beacon Capital Partners

Ivanhoé Cambridge and its partner Callahan Capital Properties have bought a 40 percent interest in 515 North State, an office property in downtown Chicago. The transaction, which was completed as a joint venture with affiliates of Beacon Capital Partners, a U.S. private real estate investment firm, was priced at US$55 million. Ivanhoé Cambridge is the real estate investment arm of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec.

The Boston-based firm has held a final close on its latest vehicle, which was originally targeting $6bn.

Honest Buildings, a New York-based project management and procurement platform for real estate owners, has increased its Series B financing to US$30 million. The additional investment of US$5 million was led by First Capital Realty Inc, a Canadian owner, developer and manager of grocery-anchored retail urban properties. It joins the company's existing investors. They include Brookfield Property Partners, GreenSoil Building Innovation Fund, Oxford Properties Group, the real estate investment arm of OMERS, and QuadReal Property Group, owned by British Columbia Investment Management Corp.

Ivanhoé Cambridge, the real estate investment arm of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, and its partner Callahan Capital Properties, have bought a 49 percent interest in 330 Hudson, a 16-storey office building in New York City. The deal, which was valued at US$150 million, was done through a joint venture with affiliates of Beacon Capital Partners. The transaction is Ivanhoé's fifth acquisition made with Callahan, bringing the partners' U.S. office platform investments to more than US$2.1 billion.

The $27.4bn endowment will keep eyeing secondaries sales and acquisitions, after reporting a 2.7% real estate loss in the past year. Real estate, though, would be one of the 'most interesting' opportunities over the next few years.

Harvard University is reportedly in advanced talks to sell underlying investments in around six US-focused real estate funds to China sovereign wealth fund, China Investment Corporation.

Pierre Cherki will relocate to New York to lead the real estate investment arm of Deutsche Bank, while current incumbent Chuck Leitner will lead a global alliance to ‘green’ real estate.

Over the past five years, the top 30 private equity real estate firms in the world have raised more than $211 billion -10 percent more than when PERE last counted capital raising efforts by the industry. Read on to discover the firms garnering the most. PERE Magazine May 2009.

The troubled private equity real estate firm has lost control of 120 Howard Street to mezzanine note holder, Prudential Real Estate Investors. PREI financed $23.2m in mezzanine loans at the time of the deal in May 2007.

The New York-based private equity real estate firms are once again the two largest private equity real estate firms in the world. The top 30 firms raised more than $211 billion in value-added, opportunistic capital over the past five years.