Updated: Strategic Partners scouts RE talent

New York-based Strategic Partners could be gearing up to launch a new, standalone real estate secondaries fund, after it finishes raising its sixth private equity secondaries vehicle.

The Blackstone Group’s secondaries arm, Strategic Partners, has retained a recruitment agency to hire someone to manage its real estate investments and could be gearing up to launch a real estate secondaries fund, Secondaries Investor has learned.

Strategic Partners recently launched the search, according to multiple sources who were unable to say whether Strategic Partners had made any hiring decisions.

Blackstone did not return a request for comment by press time.

Strategic Partners’ exposure to real estate has been through allocations within its private equity secondaries funds and four dedicated real estate secondaries vehicles, which have been raised alongside the firm’s flagship funds and invested using the same team.

The firm is currently in the market with its sixth flagship private equity secondaries fund, which has a 5 percent allocation to real estate and fund of funds, according to documents from the Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System. Fund VI, which is the group’s first since it was acquired by Blackstone last year, has collected $3.2 billion toward its $3.5 billion target, according to Blackstone’s second quarter earnings report last week.

Until now, the flagship funds and prior real estate funds have been raised under Strategic Partners’ team of 29 generalist investment professionals in New York, London and San Francisco. The group is led by senior managing directors Stephen Can and Verdun Perry.


A prior version of this article indicated Strategic Partners had not previously raised separate real estate funds; it’s now been updated to reflect it has done so in the past, but in parallel with its buyout-focused funds and using the same investment team.Â