Clarion hires exec to expand RE strategies

Clarion Partners, a New York-based real estate investment manager, has hired Howard Margolis in the newly created post of head of product development.

In his new role, Margolis will work on products that are already in development and generate new investment opportunities for the firm. Clarion did not elaborate further on the products or opportunities that he would be focused on.

“This is a strategic and timely hire for the firm,” said Hugh Macdonnell, managing director and the firm’s head of client capital management. “Howard brings to Clarion a diverse background and broad expertise in real estate investment management. He will apply his knowledge and experience to create investment products and thus deliver value to our clients.”

Howard joins Clarion Partners from a four-year stint as principal at BIP Investments, the family office of John Blumberg, co-founder and managing principal of Denver-based private equity firm Black Creek Group. Prior to that, he was director of real assets at Willett Advisors, the family office of billionaire and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg from 2009 to 2011, and also has held senior roles at Black Creek Group, Government of Singapore Investment Corporation and UBS’s real estate investment banking group.

Clarion’s real estate strategies span the risk/return spectrum across core, core-plus, value-added and opportunistic. The firm invests in the office, retail, industrial, multifamily residential and hotel sectors globally through both commingled funds and separate accounts on behalf of more than 200 domestic and international institutional investors. Its largest fund is its flagship core vehicle, Clarion Lion Properties Fund, which had raised nearly $9.3 billion as of October, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Clarion, led by executive chairman Steve Furnary and chief executive Dave Gilbert, currently has $44 billion in total assets under management and more than 280 employees in Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, London, Los Angeles, São Paulo, Seattle and Washington, DC.