Pathfinder closes third fund

San Diego-based real estate investment firm Pathfinder Partners has closed fundraising for its third opportunistic vehicle, which focuses on acquiring distressed loans and properties throughout the western US, and already is looking to launch a follow-up fund. 

According to a statement, Pathfinder has closed on $57.5 million in equity commitments for Pathfinder Partners Opportunity Fund III, which held its initial closing in May 2011. The firm’s strategy is to focus “on smaller properties that are below the radar of large institutional investors,” said Mitch Siegler, senior managing director and Pathfinder’s co-founder, in the statement. “We already have deployed the majority of the fund’s capital, concluding 17 portfolio investments, and are in the initial planning stages for Pathfinder Partners Opportunity Fund IV.” 

With an emphasis on multifamily investments, the fund currently owns several properties in each of southern California, Seattle, Phoenix and Denver, as well as in other major markets in the western US. Among the fund’s recent investments include Wellshire Arms, a 107-unit multifamily complex in Denver; Dorsey Place, a 90-unit condominium project in Tempe, Arizona; and the senior mortgage on The Sanctuary, a 100-year-old church in Seattle that was converted into a 12-unit, luxury townhouse project. 

Since its inception in 2006, Pathfinder has acquired about $500 million of distressed notes and properties. Siegler said the firm anticipates “deploying the balance of Fund III’s capital by the fourth quarter of 2012.”