Former Oaktree adviser launches real estate investment business

Real estate veteran Rachel Lupiani has co-founded Brave Corporation, a UK-based office real estate company, and will lead its direct investment arm, Brave Capital, PERE has learned. Her fellow co-founders include flexible workspace entrepreneur Caleb Parker, who will also serve as the company’s chief executive officer, and hospitality executive Ian Minor.

Prior to launching Brave, Lupiani founded Lupiani & Associates, an investment adviser for real estate private equity funds, private investors and family offices, and she continues to run the business as managing director, according to her LinkedIn profile. From October 2013 to June 2021, she was a real estate adviser to Oaktree Capital Management. Prior to that, she served as director in the Paris, Madrid and Milan offices of The Carlyle Group from 2001 to 2012.

As managing director of Brave Capital, Lupiani will be in charge of raising and investing capital for Brave Corporation, which “will partner directly with investors to reposition entire buildings to meet ESG standards and dynamic customer demand before they risk becoming stranded,” according to the company’s website.

Brave Capital initially will be focused on raising and investing capital on a deal-by-deal basis. The platform is currently in discussions with potential investors that include family offices, high-net-worth individuals and institutions.

The platform will make both equity and debt investments in office properties located in major cities in the UK and Europe, with the target building size around 100,000 square feet.

“There are landlords giving keys back and getting foreclosed on, or there needs to be some repositioning done,” said Parker. In addition to buying assets outright, Brave Capital will also look at investing in the repositioning of office properties.

“The existing owner is not ready to sell, but the building needs repositioning. With financing partners, we will be financing that capex,” Parker explained. “We’ve identified quite a few owners who don’t have the cash in their business plan to reposition.”

Obsolete assets would be upgraded to meet current sustainability requirements as well as tenant demands for more hospitality-driven, flexible workspaces. Under Brave Corporation’s propco/opco structure, the office assets acquired by Brave Capital will be operated by  Brave Hospitality, which will be led by Minor as president of the platform. He previously launched the Working From_ coworking spaces for lifestyle and hospitality company Ennismore’s The Hoxton hotel brand.

Brave Capital is currently evaluating a number of assets in its pipeline. However, Parker declined to comment on deal size, given assets are still repricing. “We believe the time to buy is soon,” he said. “We’re looking to get the best deal possible. We’ve seen deals that are 50 percent or 60 percent below what they were bought for five years ago. It all depends on underwriting and customer demand. That underwriting equation needs to work out.”

Before co-founding Brave Corporation, Parker established UK flexible workspace provider Bold, which was sold to flexible workspace company Newflex in January 2020. Bold operates its own branded workspaces, as well as coworking spaces such as XCHG at 22 Bishopsgate, AXA IM Alts’ office tower in the City of London.