Giuliani unveils $750m property fund

The consulting firm set up by the former New York mayor is branching out into real estate after launching an opportunity fund in partnership with Rockville, Maryland-based development company, Berman Enterprises. The fund, Berman Enterprises Opportunity Fund, is targeting between $500m and $750m in equity commitments.

Rudolph Giuliani’s consulting firm, Giuliani Partners, has launched a real estate opportunity fund in partnership with developer Berman Enterprises targeting up to $750 million (€472 million) in equity commitments.

The firm, founded by the former New York City mayor after he left the post in 2002, said in a statement the fund would “likely total” between $500 million and $750 million, of which Rockville, Maryland-based developer Berman was contributing at least 10 percent.

The fund is expected to target non-US investors and concentrate on commercial and residential assets in New York and Washington, DC, a report in the New York Times added. Giuliani is expected to help attract investors into the fund.

According to the Times, the fund will be managed for New York-based Giuliani Partners by managing directors Geoffrey Hess and Anthony Carbonetti. Carbonetti told the Times the firm had helped broker occasional real estate deals in the past, including a bid from the Qatari government for the Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village in New York. The deal ultimately went to Tishman Speyer Properties and the real estate arm of BlackRock for $5.4 billion.

“Being in business, New York real estate is something that always comes our way,” Carbonetti told the Times. “We have helped a number of people interested in investing in New York in recent years.”

Giuliani – who spent much of the past year competing in the Republican presidential primaries – is not expected to be involved in the day-to-day running of the fund, although he will help attract investors to the fund.

Carbonetti told the Times, Giuliani’s running for office had impacted on the consulting firm but “now that Rudy is back full time, we see a great resurgence and feel very confident that we are getting back to where we were before the run.” Despite initially being a front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, Giuliani was forced to drop out at the end of January after failing to win enough support from Republican supporters during the party’s primaries.