Clairvue hires PREI principal

The firm has appointment Jeffrey Granoff as principal after opening a New York office. More appointments are expected in the first quarter of 2011 as the firm looks to deploy its $250m debut fund.

Clairvue Capital Partners has hired former Prudential Real Estate Investors executive Jeffrey Granoff as the firm opens an office in New York. The recapitalisation and secondaries investment firm, which could be on course to fully invest its $250 million debut fund this year, appointed Granoff as principal focused on sourcing deals for Clairvue Capital Partners I.

Granoff spent the past five years as principal responsible for US deals with PREI’s global merchant banking group, which manages the insurance group’s opportunistic real estate funds. Prior to PREI, Granoff was a principal at Arcapita and before that an associate in the real estate investment banking group of Morgan Stanley.

Clairvue chief investment officer Jeff Giller said in a statement that the firm expected to name additional appointments in the first quarter “as real estate platforms’ needs to recapitalise their balance sheets continue to rise”.

Earlier this month, Giller told PERE that the San Francisco-based firm expected recap deals to remain “robust” for 2011 and into 2012, as banks and borrowers finally started dealing with their legacy portfolios. As such, Clairvue could “invest the balance” of its Capital Partners I fund, which held a first close on $250 million in June after securing a commitment from Goldman Sachs’ private equity funds.