Venturi Capital Advisors Formed: Focus To Be Raising Equity Capital For Emerging Managers And Operators, And One-Off Transactions

14 April 2008 (New York, NY) – Paul N. Arena, a senior executive in the private equity real estate space and former Principal at placement firm Atlantic-Pacific Capital has announced the formation of Venturi Capital Advisors, Inc., a full-service real estate investment banking firm focusing on private placements, including the arrangement of equity and debt for both one-off, single-asset and portfolio transactions, and entity-level fund raising.

“Equilibrium allocations to real estate have yet to be reached across much of the institutional investment community,” Arena stated. “This, combined with market fundamentals that at present continue to be solid across multiple property segments, notwithstanding the current turbulence in the credit markets and backdrop of macroeconomic uncertainty, indicates a strong, persistent need on the part of owner/operators and managers for institutional-caliber equity and debt placement expertise,” Arena continued. “Venturi Capital Advisors was formed to meet this need.”

“Having come to private equity real estate from a “bricks and mortar” real estate background, we’re uniquely positioned to better understand the needs and concerns of owner/operators, and are therefore in a more advantageous position to effectively market and represent them,” Arena said. “Our operational expertise allows us to more carefully vet the managers we review,” Arena continued, “and also to more cogently tell their story to the private equity community once we’re in the market with a transaction.”

“Our typical client is an operator or manager with a solid track record of above-average risk-adjusted returns, and a rich deal pipeline, mostly a result of being a local player with the inside track and the ability to tie up off-market transactions and proprietary deal flow.” “What they lack,” Arena continued, “are the institutional investor network and contacts: public and private pensions, family offices, endowments, and off-the-radar private equity players - - the institutional equity sources - - needed to build on their existing operating platforms and continue their acquisition programs.” “The formation of Venturi Capital Advisors addresses this need, focusing on placements of ten million to $500 million or greater.” Venturi will continue to represent established managers with long track records, and Arena will continue to service these existing clients in his new role.

Formerly the sole real estate specialist at Atlantic-Pacific, where he had been recruited to head up the real estate directs team, Arena left that firm at the end of 2007.

“In the market daily, I recognized there were quality managers looking to move from the “friends and family” phase of their fundraising onto the institutional playing field,” Arena commented. “These firms, due to their size or other factors, are generally unable to attract the attention of most placement agents, many of whom cannot or do not wish to accommodate emerging managers and others with one-off transactions, and therein I saw an opportunity to be the dominant firm in this space,” Arena said.

Just a month into it, Venturi has already locked up a number of key exclusive assignments, and will be bringing to market a number of exciting mandates, including:

  • An approximate $100,000,000 raise for a Philadelphia-based value-added / opportunistic operator active in the fast-growing Lehigh Valley and greater Mid-Atlantic regions;
  • An approximate $250,000,000 raise that will fund the programmatic acquisition of approximately 60 medical office assets located throughout the U.S. and Canada;
  • An approximate $250,000,000 raise that will fund the acquisition program of a specialist hotel operator, focusing on distressed hospitality assets globally;
  • A $20 million equity and debt financing for a fully-permitted, ground-up 125-key Hyatt Place Hotel in downtown Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. This facility will take advantage of the shortage of hotel rooms in the downtown area, where Bethlehem, no longer a steel town, has seen a growing corporate presence in and around the City, and increased activity from local universities, namely Lehigh University;
  • A $50,000,000 raise for a highly successful New York City-based residential developer looking to acquire “stuck” condo projects throughout the tri-state area.

A longtime player in private equity, Mr. Arena was also a Managing Director at both The Carlton Group and a well-known investment management firm, where during his various tenures he transacted over $10 Billion of equity and debt business.

Mr. Arena has played key roles infiltrating and attracting equity capital, identifying and securing the equity sources for a number of high-profile transactions, among them the 2006 acquisition of 311 South Wacker Drive, a 65-story, 1.4 million square foot trophy office tower located in Chicago’s West Loop, and a $250,000,000 entity-level raise for a noted West Coast industrial property operator.

Arena has already recruited a senior associate to assist with transaction analytics and distribution, and “will add staff as the business ramps up,” he said. Headquartered in New York City, Arena will lead Venturi Capital Advisors as President and CEO.

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Contact

Paul N. Arena
President
Chrysler Building
132 East 43rd Street, Suite 311
New York, NY 10017
Tel 347.599.0187
Cell 917.306.2917
GSM Cell 917.496.7346
E-Mail parena@venturicapitaladvisors.com
Web Site venturicapitaladvisors.com