Henley Investments, a private equity real estate investor headquartered in the United Kingdom, is bringing its expertise and entrepreneurial model to the United States.
As the first part of Henley’s expansion, the firm is announcing the formation of Henley USA and will open offices in Boston, Massachusetts, and Orange County, California.
Henley USA will be headed by Garrett Solomon, the founder of Corbelis, a nationally recognized residential land development and management company.
Prior to forming Corbelis in 2012, Solomon spent almost two decades with real estate private equity firms Rockpoint Group and Westbrook Partners.
Henley USA will launch with five U.S. based team members and expects that they will actively be seeking further talent to grow their presence.
In addition, Henley USA and Corbelis will also create a new venture called Henley Corbelis, which will continue the existing Corbelis business and act as an operator on direct deals when appropriate.
Ian Rickwood, chief executive officer of Henley commented: “We see a real opportunity in the U.S. real estate market, post the great recession many high quality innovative entrepreneurs have struggled to raise equity finance in an efficient manner to grow their operations, our model unlocks that. We are looking forward to working with great local operators.”
Henley USA will operate the same opportunistic entrepreneurial platform as its European counterpart, seeking to invest in the best operators across the real estate market with a particular focus on arbitrage, dislocation and distress.
Rickwood added: “We are excited to have Garrett leading our efforts in the US and are looking for entrepreneurial individuals or firms with a solid track record or unique insight into the market, who have the ambition, energy and desire to grow much bigger ventures.”
Henley USA has kicked off its operations by picking up Henley’s rollout of Waterwalk Hotel & Apartments, with the intention of opening five Waterwalk franchises in the near future.
This follows Henley’s $100 million investment in the US’s first serviced apartment brand last year.
The firm has already generated a pipeline of other deals across a number of asset classes, that when completed, would create $500 million in assets under management by the end of 2016.
Henley’s U.S. expansion follows a strong 12 months in Europe. It recently purchased one of the UK’s largest residential development sites and made a number of notable acquisitions in Holland and Germany.
