GTIS raises $256m for latest fund

GTIS Partners has surpassed the halfway point in fundraising for its debut US residential real estate fund, GTIS US Residential Strategies Fund. PERE understands that the New York-based firm has collected $256 million to date for the vehicle, which has an equity target of $400 million to $500 million.

GTIS held a first close of $41 million for its US Residential Strategies Fund in March 2012 and had raised a total of $185 million in commitments one year later, according to filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, the fund manager raised another $151 million through co-investment vehicles at the end of last year for two residential projects: the $36.5 million acquisition of a master-planned community on a 560-acre land site in Mesa, Arizona, and a $250 million apartment development in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan.

While GTIS initially was targeting US suburban communities on behalf of the fund, the firm recently has become more heavily focused on opportunities in urban real estate, as exemplified by the Chelsea development project. Part of the firm’s investment strategy is to acquire land, create the building ‘pads’ on the site and then sell the lots to homebuilders, the majority of whom are capital-constrained and consequently prefer to buy finished lots. GTIS, which is expected to hold a final close for the fund by the end of the July, has deployed $160 million of the capital raised so far.

More recent investments on behalf of the US Residential Strategies Fund include the March acquisition of a waterfront land site to build a 400-unit condominium project on Biscayne Boulevard in Miami and two distressed land purchases in Tampa, Florida last month. Additionally, the firm has purchased up to 650 single-family homes in Atlanta, Las Vegas, Dallas and South Florida through multiple transactions totaling $65 million, as part of a buy-to-rent investment focus within its larger US residential strategy.