Brookfield hires Courtland senior consultant – Exclusive

The Toronto-based alternative asset manager has tapped Jarrod Rapalje as the newest member of its real estate capital raising team.

Brookfield Asset Management has recruited Jarrod Rapalje (pictured), formerly a senior consultant at Courtland Partners, to become part of its real estate capital raising team. He will be based in Cleveland, Ohio.

Rapalje joined Brookfield as a real estate product specialist earlier this month and will initially focus on helping to raise capital for Brookfield’s new core-plus real estate fund, Brookfield Premier Real Estate Partners, which was launched earlier this year, according to two people familiar with the matter. Brookfield declined to comment.

PERE understands that Brookfield has not hired any other real estate-focused professionals in its private funds group recently. In April, the Toronto-based alternative asset manager held a final close on $9 billion for its second global opportunistic real estate fund, Brookfield Strategic Real Estate Partners II.

Rapalje, who left Courtland in early July, actually worked two stints at the Cleveland-based real assets consulting firm. He had been a senior consultant since 2012, where he was responsible for portfolio strategy, investment due diligence, and monitoring of Courtland’s client investment activity and provided consulting services to a number of large institutional clients, including major US state and city pension plans. Earlier, he worked as an equity analyst at Longbow Research from 2010 to 2012 and as an analyst as Courtland from 2008 to 2010, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Rapalje’s responsibilities and client accounts will be split among four staff at Courtland: senior consultant Anthony Fragapane, senior consultant Gila Cohen, consultant Jeremy Goldberg and senior vice president Thomas Hester. Fragapane joined Courtland earlier this month and previously was vice president at Farragut Investments, where he worked on originating, underwriting, performing due diligence, financing and closing acquisitions and dispositions in real estate and other alternative asset classes.

Rapalje’s departure follows a number of recent exits at Courtland. Earlier this year, Robert Negrelli, formerly a senior consultant at Courtland, joined Oaktree Capital Management as a consultant to its real estate team. Meanwhile, Dan Butler, who had worked as a senior analyst since 2010, left the firm in March 2015 to become a director at American Realty Advisors. Meanwhile, Daniel Moore, formerly a senior consultant and infrastructure specialist, also departed last year and is now co-owner of WJF Investment Corporation, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Courtland, meanwhile, made a string of new hires in late 2015 and early 2016, including Cohen, Goldberg and Hester. “We are disappointed to see Jarrod go and wish him the best,” said Michael Humphrey, managing principal at Courtland, in an email to PERE. “At the same time, we are pleased to add a person with Tony’s experience and capability.”