Barings closed its inaugural Barings Innovation and Growth Real Estate Fund with $680 million in investor commitments.
The capital raise expands the firm’s U.S. real estate equity platform to over $13.1 billion. The strategy is focused on capitalizing on fundamental demand drivers in the life science and STEM office space in key markets that attract and retain highly educated and innovative workforces.
Joe Gorin and John Kolb will co-manage the fund with support from a broad team, including Maureen Joyce, head of U.S. Real Estate Equity Asset Management. The team will leverage Barings’ expansive U.S. platform to execute on the Innovation and Growth strategy.
“At Barings, we believe there is strong relative value for the highest quality office assets that attract high-caliber life science and technology tenants, who continue to drive advancements in healthcare and global economic growth. The leasing performance of this specialized subset of office has substantially outperformed the overall office market since the beginning of the pandemic,” said Gorin, Barings’ head of U.S. Real Estate Equity Acquisitions and Portfolio Management. “We are fortunate to have additional capital that we can invest into what we believe will be attractively priced assets in strategic markets with high degrees of educational attainment and STEM employment.”
With a track record of more than 25 years in the U.S. real estate equity market, the firm has $36.2 billion across real estate equity and debt with nearly 140 dedicated real estate investment professionals across six U.S. offices managing more than 550 assets. Globally, Barings has $46.5 billion in assets.
“We believe our team is well-positioned to find significant opportunities for our investors by balancing current dislocation in the real estate market with the continued growth we see in life sciences and STEM-based industries,” said John Ockerbloom, head of U.S. Real Estate. “We are pleased to have brought a differentiated offering to a broad and diverse group of institutional investors across regions.”
