Info on Chicago REPE Firms
Interested in working in REPE in Chicago so wondering if anyone can provide insight into the main REPE shops in Chicago - LaSalle/Harrison Street/Heitman/Walton Street? Hoping to get info regarding deal flow, culture, reputation, and potential exit opps. Thanks!
Kinda pick your poison, honestly. LaSalle and Heitman are pretty core/core plus and mammoth, HS/WS more opportunistic and play around in all check sizes. All 4 are great shops, with exit opps plentiful in CRE.
Lasalle and Heitman operate larger and broader, and have more name recognition than the others, in my opinion. LaSalle likely has the most exit opps just because of their umbrella of companies you can change verticals in. LaSalle is very relationship driven in their hiring, a lot of legacy types. Heitman a lot of the same - lot of midwest bros from the larger public schools. At LS you'll be doing a lot of BS around earnings that you wouldn't have to at others. LS is also viewed a lot like Global Investors - one stop shop with bodies for management. There's stigma / concerns with that, certainly.
Walton and Harrison are going to feel more boutique, mostly LP players - both are pretty Ivy League which is typical for the boutique LP shops. Walton had essentially a monopoly on DC based sponsors for a while with MRP, Monument, Atlantic and Stonebridge. Made a ton of well timed bets in the middle market space with them from DC to Philly. I know they still do a lot with Stonebridge, which is not the worst sponsor to be messing around with, but a lot of exposure in hospitality and retail across Walton. Harrison does a ton of medical and storage, decent amount of ressy.
Walton Street is a top shop - they have a very strong analyst program that has historically led to exit opps at basically every other top REPE fund (ie Centerbridge, KKR, Apollo). However if you choose to stay, they promote very fast if you're good as in you can make VP in 4 years and Principal in 6 years. They only recruit at 5-6 core schools so pretty tough to get in unless you go to a school they target. Pay is comparable to banking and deal flow is strong. Only caveat is that their returns suffered in funds prior to the '08 crisis so haven't been able to raise as much equity as they did then but still decently large (~$1.3b opportunistic fund and also have a debt fund and new core-plus fund).
Harrison Street is a growing fund that has been raising a lot of capital for niche asset classes, have seen them consistently on PERE 50. They just started an analyst program in 2018 so exit opps are still to be proven out but probably still a very strong experience because of deal flow and how much equity theyre deploying. Work on pretty cool deals and have been targeting asset classes adjacent to their core such as life science and data centers. Acquisitions and asset management are silo'd from each other, so would decide which side you like better if you apply there.