Greystar hires Angelo Gordon exec to oversee new funds platform – Exclusive

Terri Herubin will be responsible for the firm’s sector-specific open-ended vehicles in US multifamily and student housing.

Greystar Real Estate Partners has hired former Angelo Gordon managing director and real estate senior product specialist Terri Herubin to lead the firm’s US open-ended funds platform.

In this newly-created role, Herubin will take the title of managing director of portfolio management and will oversee the Charleston, South Carolina-based residential real estate firm’s core-plus open-ended funds in US multifamily and student housing. She will also serve as practice leader for the firm’s international open-ended investment vehicles as Greystar introduces sector-specific open-ended funds for Europe and Asia. The firm plans to introduce an open-ended residential rental fund for Europe in 2019 and a similar fund for Asia in 2020, according to executive managing director of investment management Wes Fuller.

Herubin, who will be based in Charleston, will report to senior managing director of investment management Chris MacNaughton and will bring her experience as an investor, consultant and portfolio manager of an open-ended fund to the table.

Herubin started on the investor side, working for 15 years at the New York State Teachers’ Retirement Fund where she served as a co-portfolio manager of the pension plan’s $9 billion real estate portfolio. In 2009, she joined The Townsend Group consultancy, heading up underwriting and portfolio management on behalf of clients and developing a relationship with Greystar in the process. Prior to taking a position at Angelo Gordon, she spent five years at Barings, where she worked as the lead portfolio manager for the firm’s open-ended core fund.

“Having all of those different experiences allow me to come in and look at this open-end product field with many different hats on and I think that’s helpful to investors,” Herubin told PERE.

Herubin’s background will be key to executing Greystar’s greater goal of becoming a leader in the sector-specific open-ended funds market, according to Fuller. Open-ended funds can be harder to manage because they must ensure a much higher level of liquidity than closed-ended funds, allowing investors to potentially enter and exit the fund on a quarterly basis. Also, they have more technical challenges not found in closed-ended funds, such as managing deposit queues, redemption requests, quarterly dividends and constant benchmarking, according to Herubin.

The launch of Greystar’s sector-specific open-ended funds platform has been driven by demand from investors, which are increasingly seeking more control over their investments. With sector-specific funds, they can choose to increase allocations to certain property types over others and create a more customized portfolio, she said. Some investors may not feel that they are getting the desired exposure to certain sectors in a diversified fund.

With approximately $32 billion in assets under management, Greystar is a global real estate firm that specializes in residential real estate properties. The firm has core-plus funds including the closed-ended Greystar Asia-Pac China-focused fund, which launched in 2019, and the open-ended Greystar Growth & Income Fund, which focuses on North American assets. The firm also has a closed-ended value-add series, Greystar Equity Partners, which is now raising its 10th fund. The firm most recently closed on its first real estate debt fund, the $500 million Greystar Credit Partners I, in June 2018.