Starting from an NYU dorm room in the early 1980s, Joseph Sitt began purchasing property in the blighted neighborhoods of New York and converting them into inner-city shopping strips. Along the way, he built up his own retail chains, renovated outer-borough shopping centers and built Thor Equities into an investment firm with more than $2 billion invested in urban mixed-use strategies across the US. Thor, which closed its first commingled fund in 2004, recently purchased the Palmer House Hilton in downtown Chicago. Here Sitt speaks about urban retail, the need to think multi-dimensionally and the importance of a good sound system.
4 min read · 23 January 2013
Over the past few years, turnaround investor Sun Capital Partners has been involved with a number of high-profile retail buyouts, including Mervyns and the Pamida and ShopKo chains, as well as specialty retailers like Wickes Furniture, Mattress Firm and Nationwide Furniture. But as Gary Talarico, head of the Boca Raton, Florida-based firm's New York office, is quick to point out, the firm doesn't seek out retail or real estate deals. Rather, the firm invests in distressed companies and looks to use the company's property in the recovery.
4 min read · 23 January 2013
Over the past few years, retail has become a popular target for private equity and property investors alike, providing all manner of opportunity—and risk—for shop-savvy investors. By Aaron Lovell
3 min read · 23 January 2013
Founded in 1995 by Jon Bauer, Janice Stanton and Gil Tenzer, Contrarian Capital is a multi-strategy hedge fund focused on distressed opportunities. The Greenwich, Connecticut-based firm currently has over $4 billion in funds under management, including the Contrarian Real Estate Fund, which has a $250 million capacity. Here, Tenzer, who oversees the firm's real estate platform, speaks about Contrarian's focus on distress, the difficulty of finding opportunities in today's market and why every dog has his day.
4 min read · 23 January 2013
Demand for condominiums is faltering across the US as speculators exit the market. Can private equity real estate firms pick up the pieces? By Alison Granito
8 min read · 23 January 2013
Italy's non-performing loan market rolls on while investors wait for a new wave of distressed real estate assets. By Robin Marriott
5 min read · 23 January 2013
Distressed real estate opportunities may not be as ubiquitous as in the past, but savvy property investors know that something is always going badly somewhere—you just have to know where to look.
3 min read · 23 January 2013
Over the past six years, Mark Newman and Gerald Parkes have both run the European arm of Lehman Brothers' private equity real estate operations. Here the duo talk about the investment bank's silo-free model, their strong commitment to long-term partnerships and why investing in real estate is a lot like playing golf. By Paul Fruchbom
10 min read · 23 January 2013
At the crossroads 2006-09-01 Staff Writer While Times Square in New York City is often called the Crossroads of the World, <italic>The New York Times</italic> described the spot near where Broadway and 44th Street meet as the “Crossroads of the Crossroads” in a 2004 piece celebrating Times Square
3 min read · 23 January 2013
The merchant banking arm of Pramerica takes the plunge in Switzerland.
1 min read · 23 January 2013
