Rendering of Breakthrough’s life sciences property at 105 W First Street in Boston
US developer Tishman Speyer has teamed up with South Korea’s National Pension Service Investment Management, better known as NPS, to create a $1.5 billion separately managed account focused on investments in real estate innovation and high-demand asset classes in major US markets.
The NPS-Tishman Speyer Thematic Platform will pursue opportunities in emerging sectors that are being propelled by rapid advances in innovation and technology, as well as explore the creation of new funds and platforms aimed at a range of promising sectors, the partners said Tuesday in a release.
The platform will also devote capital to the acquisition and development of life sciences real estate through Breakthrough Properties, a joint venture of Tishman Speyer and life sciences investment firm Bellco Capital, and will make investments in promising proptech firms.
“For more than a decade, the National Pension Service has been a strategic partner and sophisticated co-investor with us,” said Tishman Speyer president and CEO Rob Speyer. “I am excited to build on our relationship and recent successes. This new platform leans into our collective experience in emerging asset classes and global markets. The most intriguing part is the new built-in ability to move quickly based on disruptive technologies and market shifts.”
Deep-Pocketed Pals
Tishman’s tie-up with South Korea’s largest pension fund comes just over a month after the Manhattan-based developer joined forces with another bigfoot Korean investor, Hana Financial Group, to set up a $500 million fund for co-investing in the developer’s real estate projects in the US, Europe and Asia.
Rob Speyer keeps making friends in Korea
Under that strategic partnership, Hana will deploy equity capital of up to $500 million over the next two years in backing Tishman projects in a variety of asset classes.
The NYC giant just one year ago raised $1 billion for its Breakthrough Properties joint venture and was busy putting that capital to work in September when the joint venture announced the acquisition of a site in South Boston’s Fort Point waterfront district for development of a 2.5 acre (1 hectare) innovation district.
The platform announced this week will also enable the $788 billion Korean fund to become an anchor investor in an affordable-housing platform that Tishman Speyer announced in July last year, and which focuses on building and investing in homes for middle-income residents in New York City to provide fair and equitable housing in supply constrained neighbourhoods.
The partnership will also seed a new mezzanine lending arm within Tishman Speyer to originate and acquire high-yield loans tied to various sectors of real estate in gateway cities and growing innovation markets.
Asian Experience
In Asia Pacific, Tishman Speyer has concentrated its efforts on two large mixed-use Shanghai projects: Crystal Plaza, where last year the firm sold an entire office tower to the beauty products company of actress Zhang Ting for $248 million; and The Springs, where TikTok maker ByteDance acquired a combined 2.55 million square feet (236,903 square metres) of office and retail space in mid-2021.
Founded in 1978, privately held Tishman Speyer has acquired, developed and operated 484 properties with a combined value in excess of $121 billion, including New York’s Rockefeller Center, where the firm is headquartered.
NPS, one of the largest pension funds in the world, has kept busy this year with a series of globe-spanning property investments, even as reports suggest that its heads of infrastructure and real estate investment will leave to pursue new opportunities by the end of this month.
NPS Expanding Globally
In September, the fund and US developer Hines set a new bar for their longtime partnership by announcing a $2.5 billion commercial and residential megaproject in downtown San Francisco. The plan includes the redevelopment of two existing office buildings and the construction of a residential tower that could reach 818 feet (249 metres) and 75 storeys high.
A few months earlier, NPS acquired a 100 percent interest in the 34-storey Melbourne Quarter Tower from Australian developer Lendlease for a reported A$1.2 billion ($900 million). The largest and last of three office towers in Lendlease’s Melbourne Quarter precinct, the under-construction Melbourne Quarter Tower will be managed on behalf of NPS by Lendlease Funds Management.
In March, NPS committed $500 million to US private equity giant Blackstone’s new life sciences real estate fund, which is expected to raise over $12 billion.
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