Zoe Hughes

The New York-based private equity real estate firm has restructured $459m in mezzanine loans with Lehman Brothers, which had been due in May. However it means handing back three properties and giving full control of seven others to the bank. The properties were purchased from Beacon Capital in 2007.

The flow of private real estate firms launching public debt REITs has increased again, after the New York-based firm filed an IPO for Ladder Capital Realty Finance. The vehicle will primarily originate first mortgages and target some CMBS, B-notes and mezzanine loans.

The New York-based private equity real estate firm has reportedly written down its $1.45bn investment in the hotel chain to just $742m as of the end of 2008. It has also written down investments in casino company Harrah's Entertainment and semi-conductor unit Freescale.

David Hodes and Doug Weill have left the investment bank's real estate placement group to create their own firm, Hodes Weill & Associates. The pair co-founded the real estate placement agent in 2000 with Bill Thompson, who remains at Credit Suisse along with other senior management.

Richard Levin, president of Yale University, said the investment model designed by David Swensen had performed ‘spectacularly well’ for the endowment despite a 30% decline in value in the last fiscal year, according to a Bloomberg report.

The private equity firm has purchased 321 single family loans for with a face value of $28m for $4.9m from Cerberus Capital Management-backed GMAC.

As LPs struggle to deal with their own liquidity issues, real estate secondaries specialist Landmark Partners says many limited partners may be missing the ‘ultimate’ investment opportunity.

Apollo Global files an IPO for its debut debt real estate platform, Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance. ACREFI, which will list as a REIT and be led by Joseph Azrack and Scott Weiner, will target US whole loans and CMBS.

As private fund managers look to the US public markets to raise capital, one public REIT is looking to a private fund to take advantage of the downturn. By Zoe Hughes

The founder of RLJ Companies, Robert Johnson, says the US bailout programme will help establish a market price for real estate-related securities – and potentially for banks’ other real estate assets. "It’s not a total panacea but it will help banks that are trying to find market pricing."