Managers

Bell closes multifamily fund on $600m

The Greensboro, North Carolina-based firm hit its hard-cap for the value-added vehicle after a year in market.

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Bell Partners has wrapped up its latest multifamily fund on its $600 million hard-cap, the Greensboro, North Carolina-based firm said Monday.

The firm launched Bell Apartment Fund VI in June 2016 with a $400 million-$600 million target. Bell held a first close for the vehicle on $285 million in December, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Fund VI’s investor base comprised global institutional investors and high-net-worth individuals. One investor in the fund was the Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System, which allocated $75 million each to the most recent vehicle, Fund V in 2013 and Fund IV in 2011, according to the pension’s meeting materials.

With capital from Fund VI, Bell Partners is investing across the US, including in California for the first time, in properties that have 150 to 450 units, according to PSERS documents. The firm is targeting an 11-14 percent net internal rate of return for Fund VI, and up to 15 percent of the fund’s capital can be deployed in development projects.

About $100 million of Fund VI’s capital has been deployed or is earmarked for deployment in the next month, said Jon Bell, the firm’s chief executive.

Since 2002, the firm has generated a 17.5 percent net IRR from its realized assets as of June 30, 2016, Bell said. Fund V, a 2013 vintage fund that closed in 2015 on $425 million, has returned 15.5 percent as of June 30, 2016, according to PSERS.

Bell Partners used two placement agents for Fund VI: New York-based CBRE Capital Advisors and Cary, North Carolina-based Atlantic Partners.

The firm also has a separate account with HANSAInvest, the German investment manager. In September, the partners launched HANSA US Residential, an open-ended core fund with a $500 million equity target to purchase about $1 billion worth of property, PERE previously reported.

Bell Partners oversees about $2 billion of assets, the CEO said. The firm, founded in 1976, opened a San Francisco office earlier this month.