Kennedy Wilson eyes LA retail with broker deal

The Beverly Hills-based investment firm has acquired the office and retail brokerage and property management company, Sachse Real Estate, as it looks to boost its retail investments around the Los Angeles area.

Kennedy Wilson has bought Los Angeles broker Sachse Real Estate in a bid to expand its retail investments.

The Beverly Hills-based property investment firm, which was recently bought out by the special purpose acquisition company Prospect Acquisition Corp., said the deal flow from Sachse would “expand the retail capability of Kennedy Wilson’s investments, brokerage and management services”, and give Sachse the chance to “source deals, provide equity and invest in deals”.

Ed Sachse, a former Douglas Emmet and Company executive who founded Sachse roughly 20 years ago, will join Kennedy Wilson along with his team.

Kennedy Wilson, which has five active value-added and opportunistic discretionary funds and more than 10 separate accounts targeting the US, Hawaii and Japan, was taken over by David Minella’s blank cheque company Prospect in November last year.

As part of the take-over it was revealed Prospect could pump $198 million of cash into Kennedy Wilson, with $145 million being used as fund, joint venture and separate account co-investment capital and $22 million to pay down debt.

Announcing the Sachse deal today, Kennedy Wilson chairman and chief executive officer William McMorrow said the firm was keen to take “advantage of [retail] opportunities in this momentum market”.

McMorrow last year told PERE the firm would be an active player in targeting distressed commercial and residential assets, particularly in California and Japan, over the coming months and years. “This is probably the greatest opportunity we have seen in our careers on the buyside for distressed real estate,” he said.