Two financial firms acquired stakes in South Florida real estate companies as the region continues to attract significant investment.
LarrainVial, a Chilean-based financial services firm, purchased a 33 percent stake in Black Salmon and TSG, a Coral Gables-based commercial real estate investment firm and developer, respectively, both led by managing partners Camilo Lopez and Jorge Escobar. The deal marks the first U.S. expansion for LarrainVial, which oversees assets totaling more than $28 billion.
In an unrelated deal, DaGrosa Capital Partners invested in broker Craig Studnicky’s Aventura-based ISG World. Studnicky said he is retaining the majority of his ownership in the real estate firm and will remain its CEO. Both companies declined to disclose the terms of the deal.
DaGrosa, a Miami-based private equity firm, is led by founder and chairman Joseph DaGrosa Jr. ISG will use the new capital to beef up its infrastructure and expand in South Florida, Latin America and elsewhere, Studnicky said.
South Florida has increasingly attracted investment from private equity firms. Madrid-based Azora Capital recently partnered with Miami-based Exan Capital to launch Azora Exan a joint venture targeting office, residential, hospitality and senior living real estate investments in the U.S.
LarrainVial investment
Through Black Salmon and TSG, LarrainVial, will own a third of the firms’ collective $1.8 billion in assets and projects under management in South Florida and across the U.S, including the under-construction Wynwood Haus apartment project in Miami and more than 1,500 additional residential units in South Florida, according to a release.
“The strategic decision for Camilo [Lopez] and myself was to stay where we are or jump to the major leagues and to do that we definitely needed to partner up with a large group,” said Escobar, who is also co-CEO. TSG and Black Salmon will tap into LarrainVial’s network of investors and high-net-worth individuals in Latin America and Europe.
The infusion of cash will allow both companies to grow faster and at a larger scale, specifically in multifamily and industrial real estate, he added.
Escobar said he will be launching a value-add multifamily investment fund and a fund to invest in industrial real estate by the end of the year, with the goal of raising close to $250 million for both. The multifamily fund will focus on the Sunbelt states, while the industrial fund will target properties nationwide.
DaGrosa infusion
Studnicky said DaGrosa’s investment into ISG World, a real estate brokerage and company that produces the Miami Report, will allow ISG to grow its sales business as well as offer construction financing to developers and mortgages to residential buyers.
“We can deliver the capital that enables Craig [Studnicky] to be more competitive,” DaGrosa said.
ISG is active in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties, as well as in selling South Florida real estate in Latin America.