Landmark real estate partner departs for Texas investment firm

The departure comes as the volume of real estate secondaries reached a record high of $8.5bn last year, driven by fund and portfolio recapitalisations.

Landmark Partners has lost an almost 13-year veteran of the firm who focused on real estate secondaries.

Partner Ira Shaw left the firm in February, according to his LinkedIn profile. He is listed as having joined Crow Holdings Capital, a Dallas-based investment management firm, as a managing director.

Simsbury, Connecticut-headquartered Landmark wants to raise more than $10 billion over the next fundraising cycle across its private equity, real estate and infrastructure funds, the chief executive of parent group BrightSphere, Suren Rana, said on a fourth quarter 2020 earnings call last week.

It is unclear if the firm is actively marketing its ninth real estate fund. Landmark’s last real estate secondaries fund raised $3.3 billion, against a target of $2 billion, by final close in 2018.

Landmark is in market with its flagship private equity secondaries fund, Landmark Equity Partners XVII, which launched in July and has received a $90 million commitment from Cathay Life Insurance, according to Secondaries Investor data. The fund is targeting $6 billion, according to documents prepared for the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority.

Real estate secondaries jumped 18 percent year-on-year to hit a high of $8.5 billion last year, according to research by Landmark. The previous record high of $8.2 billion record was registered in 2015.

Fund and property portfolio recapitalisations accounted for two-thirds of the total deal volume last year, Landmark noted.

A spokesman for Landmark did not return a request for comment on Shaw’s departure.