W3 Partners has held a first close on its debut institutional real estate fund, raising $100 million from a venture between Hunt Realty and the Teachers Retirement System of Texas.
Dallas-based Akard Street Partners invested the capital in the W3 Value-Add Fund, which is focused on value-added office and office-research and development properties, recapitalisations and debt deals in the San Francisco Bay area, Portland and Seattle areas.
Diane
Co-founded 18 months ago by former CIM Group, Harsch Investment Properties and Broadreach Capital Partners executives – Diane Olmstead, Nancy Gille and Susan Sagy, respectively – W3 is currently eyeing more than a dozen deals with expectations it will invest a minimum of $10 million per transaction. However, Gille admitted that the credit crisis never produced a “tsunami” of deals for private equity real estate investors. “There are opportunities out there, but it’s not a tidal wave by any measure,” she said. 
Olmstead
Akard Street is a venture between Hunt Realty and the $94 billion Texas Teachers pension, investing in real estate operating companies in the US.
Patricia Gibson, Hunt president, said in a statement the deal would provide the firm, part of the oil and real estate businesses of Ray Hunt, a platform for sourcing transactions in the Bay area and Pacific Northwest.
Prior to forming W3, Gille was senior vice president in charge of Bay area investments at Harsch, while Olmstead was a former principal at CIM, opening the firm’s San Francisco office, and Sagy formerly was a managing principal at Broadreach responsible for US development and redevelopment projects. W3 also recently hired ex-Broadreach director of development services Chris Hunt as managing partner.
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