Hedge-funder invests $40M in Mongolian properties

Peace Avenue in Ulan Bator, Mongolia, and Murano at Portofino in Miami Beach (Inset: Harris Kupperman)
Peace Avenue in Ulan Bator, Mongolia, and Murano at Portofino in Miami Beach (Inset: Harris Kupperman)

The head of Miami Beach-based hedge fund Praetorian Capital Management has been investing big in Mongolian real estate – about $40 million to date.

Harris Kupperman co-founded Mongolia Growth Group in 2011, taking in public with $4 million in capital. It now has more than 3,000 shareholders and 100 workers based in Mongolia. As property values soar, the real estate investments have “appreciated quite substantially,” Kupperman told the Miami Herald.

The 75 properties his company owns or manages are commercial, retail and residential sites along Peace Avenue, the main strip downtown in the capital city Ulan Bator. Kupperman said Peace Avenue is on its way to becoming the next Fifth Avenue or Lincoln Road.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

“We know it’s going to be a huge city, so it’s all about getting in early and getting the right locations,” Kupperman told the Herald. “The noodle shop we own today will be an Armani store in five years.”

Kupperman splits his time between the two worlds: living in a condo at Murano at Portofino in Miami Beach’s South Pointe Park, and a 12-story Soviet-era apartment complex in Mongolia. [Miami Herald]Mark Maurer