BPG launches eighth real estate vehicle

The value-added fund expects to raise between $650m and $750m in equity and command more than $2 billion in buying power.

BPG Properties has already raised approximately $500 million (€390 million) for its latest value-added offering, BPG Investment Partnership VIII. The vehicle has a target of $650 million to $750 million in equity and is expected to have more than $2 billion in buying power.

BPG expects to hold the fund’s only close towards the end the second quarter of 2007, according to chief executive officer Dan DiLella. The vehicle will target returns in the mid-teens and have an eight-year life span. Management will contribute at least $65 million.

BPG owns assets across sectors, with multifamily, office, industrial, retail and hospitality properties spread across 28 states. Like its two immediate predecessors, the eighth vehicle will be national in scope. Nevertheless, the firm may seek to break into some new markets or step up activity in others.

“We’d like to see more investments on the West Coast,” says DiLella. “It will never dominate the portfolio but more than we’ve had.”

Recently, the firm pushed into the Minneapolis market with its $86 million acquisition of the 936,000-square-foot Interchange Office Park.

BPG, an affiliate of Philadelphia-based Berwind Properties Group, also has a presence in Chicago, Washington DC, Raleigh, Denver and Atlanta. Earlier this year, the firm opened a Los Angeles office.

BPG has also committed approximately three-fourth of its seventh fund, which closed on $550 million early last year.

This morning, BPG announced the sale of an 800,000-square-foot warehouse complex on 58 acres of land in Oaks, Pennsylvania to Boston-based CRP Investments for $34 million. The firm bought the Valley Forge Distribution Center in 2001 for $18.1 million from Fleming Foods, who vacated the facility after the sale, and subsequently spent $5.5 million renovating the facility.  The property was 97 percent leased at the the most recent transaction, according to a statement from BPG.