Texas REPE firms
Long time lurker curious to hear thoughts, lists, or ranks of the pure play REPE firms in Texas across Dallas, Austin, and Houston. Essentially, what names do you need to be aware of in Texas?Feel free to widen the lens on fund styles and strategies (allocator, operator, value add, opportunity, core+, pooled capital, separate accounts, PJVs, co-gp, etc)I'm aware there are individual lists based on some of these cities. But I am curious to see info and thoughts on an aggregate basis.
Feel free to include Fort Worth and San Antonio as well.
I’ll let you decipher the locations but there’s quite a few groups worth checking out.
Lone Star, Argosy Real Estate Partners, KKR (Houston), Virtus Capital, Crow Capital, Madison Reality Capital, Clarion Partners, CBRE global investors, Black Creek Group (now ares), merchant banks, Crescent Real Estate fund, Iron Point partners, RSF Partners, Dalfen, Triagate Capital, dozens of family offices, and many more. Curious to hear other groups as well!
Thanks. Do you know if black creek operates independently? Or are they fully submerged with Ares?
They were literally just acquired - I think they will likely operate fairly independent and play off of Ares' capital and connections.
Dalfen is a terrible company to work for awful hr drones and family style hierarchy would not recommend basically an analyst revolving door.
Done some financing with Dalfen had a positive experience but they have had some churn.
I’ll second Iron Point stay away. I have a friend who worked there for a few years. He said people in Dallas are treated like dog crap. He aired out all the dirty laundry after he left said it’s a sweat shop where guys pretend to grind and pay sucks balls.
He said all guys did was watch sports and beat their meat in the stalls at night. He was being serious and walked in on a coworker beating his meat in a bathroom stall and said he accidentally walked in the stall right as the guy blew a load with the jizz still dripping off his wang then yelled at him to get the f$&$!!! out you little piece of 💩.
He said the relationship with this guy deteriorated where he made stuff up about his attitude and he wouldn’t look him in the eye but he said it was not the first time he heard him spanking his monkey in a stall said it was pretty habitual if they worked after 6 pm. He was asked to resign not to long after that incident after a few years there.
How can it be a “sweatshop” if guys pretend to grind ? Also that stall story is pretty fucking hilarious
Hines in Houston - if screen by "Texas" they would be second highest on PERE 100 list (after Loan Star, 52 overall). Others I'd think of already listed above!
Also Hines does a lot of core, and a lot of one-offs, which aren’t included in the PERE 100 numbers.
Not to hijack the post here. The Pere list is great but some ranks are a little, um, let’s just say mendacious. Personally, I wouldn’t consider firms like Hines, lasalle, pgim as your typical “repe”, especially Hines, they just so happen to be on these lists because a fraction of their business which comes out to big numbers, relatively sneaking, qualifies them for pere’s fund rank criteria.
But yes, redever is right.
Is that because their identity is mainly known as a developer? Or is it because most repe firms don’t have have in-house development or property management?
DFW
Crow Holdings
Lone Star Funds
Dalfen (only industrial)
Goldman Merchant Banking
Invesco
Stone Lake Capital Partners (also have offices in Houston / Dallas)
Hillwood (might not be considered REPE definitely do a ton of development as well as acquisitions)
Clarion Partners
Thackeray Partners
Crescent (might be considered more of a developer but does acquisitions)
MORE Residential (only multifamily)
Houston
Hines
Lionstone Investments
KKR (think only asset management in this office)
Nitya Capital (small but growing, lots of people think they are overpaying and might go broke / overall not a good shop so wouldn’t recommend)
Austin
Virtus Real Estate Capital
Amherst (exclusively SFR but huge player in that growing space)
A ton of smaller acquisitions firms in DFW - definitely others in Houston / Austin but not as many.
Dalfen is a terrible company to work for awful hr drones and family style hierarchy would not recommend basically an analyst revolving door.
Avoid Nitya at all costs. Just paid out a $60mm fine. Those boys are known for putting lipstick on a pig and squeezing nickels. Sweattttyyyyyyyy as hell
what did they do to get that fine?
Have heard multiple stories from multiple people about shady stuff from them
What’s the scoop on stone lake? Ive heard mixed feedback.
Add Marble Capital in houston to your list. Good guys. Mostly spun off after ARA > BCG > Newmark sale and are growing quickly.
Think Marble Capital exclusively invests in the Mezz Debt / Pref Equity slice of the capital stack but definitely agree super smart guys and growing firm in Houston
Any more information on Marble? Have an informational interview with them soon and would like to come prepared.
creAnalyst97 mentioned they exclusively invest in mezzanine debt and preferred equity so I know that much. From what I can recall back in 2020, they were only around $400-500M AUM and have grown to $3B+ recently.
Anyone know much about peak rock capital out of Austin? Seems like their main strategy is corporates but looks like they have a real estate arm?
The group is very small but the background of their team was strong. They took a pass on a multi deal we presented them without any real dialogue, so didn’t get to know them well. Sorry I don’t have more info.
Gotcha. seems like they don't have super great feedback from a culture perspective on the corporate side according to other threads on here. Not to mention their office is like 45 minutes from Austin CBD.
What’s the scoop on the Fortress Dallas office? I feel like I see a new job posting for acquisitions or asset management every 3 days.
Don’t have contacts at their DFW office but they seem to always have churn. Even when I was analyst-level (5 or so years ago), they would always have a position open for that office.
Endeavor Real Estate out of Austin has a solid rep.
Second this. Definitely a strong shop.
Unorganized but here are my list of firms
Non-REPE
REPE beyond the obvious big names (Crow, Clarion, Fortress, Hines)
Unsure:
Does anyone have any information on MM Properties based in Houston? Just out of curiosity.
Also found this spreadsheet I made a long time ago, information may be inaccurate in regards to $AUM.
Rockpoint in Dallas is all back office. And Paceline does more real estate (yes, hotels mainly) than corporate strategies despite what they claim. Will be really interesting to see how their first fund does.
Pace line is just the old Lone Star strategy. Buy distressed hotels nothing special IMO. Outdated strategy.
Broadvail invests in platforms. They are ok was unimpressed when I met them while I was in Houston. Prior JLL.
I have done a lot of deals with Lionstone solid guys if you get an offer take it new CEO. KKR Houston is solid mainly asset management.
Hillwood pays slave wages nobody stays long. We have a guy in our firm who left Hillwood to go to investment sales at my firm. When I asked why he left said he made so little he was forced to live off tuna & ramen and upper management was aloof and self centered. Said they made money but everyone else got the shaft.
What do you mean by investing in platforms?
Hillwood and Crow have gotten away with underpaying investment/development professionals for years. Maybe the lure is to work for Dallas heroes. Maybe the hours and culture are amazing. I think as Dallas continues to evolve and grow in the repe space, hometown firms like these will have massive comp correction or hit road blocks on new talent.
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