LaSalle’s Mackie relocates to Australia

The international director of the Chicago-based real estate investment management firm has moved to Australia after two decades of working in Singapore.  

One of Chicago-based real estate investment management firm LaSalle Investment Management’s longest-serving executives in Asia has moved offices.

After spending close to 21 years in Singapore, international director Ian Mackie is understood to have moved from Singapore to Brisbane earlier this month. He will continue in his role of handling ‘strategic partnerships’ for Asia Pacific. Strategic partnerships is a global initiative of the firm aimed at assisting large, global investors to make direct investments in real estate assets around the world, according to a company statement.

“I’m excited to relocate to Brisbane and continue my role of strategic partnerships there,” said Mackie. “There are a large number of global investors who are becoming increasingly interested in direct real estate investment and I’m very much looking forward to working with them to match their investment needs through LaSalle’s global platform.”

A founding member of LaSalle’s team in Asia Pacific, Mackie was also the president of LaSalle’s Asia opportunity fund series and the Japan logistics fund series.

In February this year, the firm made a key hire in Australia with the appointment of Chris Forbes, previously a senior executive at the Australia-based real estate firm Charter Hall, as the head of funds management for the country. Based in Sydney, Forbes has been entrusted with leading the management of LaSalle’s Australia Core Plus Fund and the LaSalle Australia Club Investment Trusts.

At the time of the hire, Mark Gabbay, the firm’s co-chief executive officer for Asia-Pacific, had underscored the importance of the Australian market for LaSalle Investment Management with regards to scaling the firm’s core and core plus business.

The same month, LaSalle also sold its 25 percent interest in Sydney’s Liberty Place to Ivanhoe Cambridge, the real estate arm of Canada’s second largest pension fund, La Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, which acquired the stake in partnership with the Blackstone Group. The deal is understood to be valued at A$240 million (€171.94 million; $181.48 million).