Equity International makes first
Colombian investment
The Chicago-based real estate investment management firm, which has made a name
for itself building up companies in Brazil and Mexico, is now expanding its Latin American
presence to Colombia. Evelyn Lee
Equity International, the Chicago-based real estate investment
management firm, has made its first investment in Colombia.
The firm announced today it had completed a $75 million investment in Terranum Development, a Bogota-based privatelyheld commercial real estate investor, developer and manager
focused on properties in Colombia and the Andean regions of
Central and South America.
According to Equity International, Terranum is the first company in Colombia to
provide top-tier real estate to accommodate the needs of domestic and international corporations. The company currently is
developing Connecta, an approximately 2
million-square-foot mixed-use complex
in the Salitre submarket near Bogota’s El
Dorado International Airport. Also in Terranum’s pipeline are opportunities in Colombia’s five largest cities—Bogota, Medellin, Cali, Barranquilla and Cartagena—as
well as investments in the surrounding
region that includes Costa Rica, Panama
and Peru.
“Colombia represents one of the most
compelling new investment frontiers and,
together with Terranum, Equity International is excited to be at the leading edge of the institutionalisation of the country’s real estate industry,” said Gary Garrabrant,
chief executive officer of Equity International, in a statement.
The $75 million investment “will help drive Terranum’s
growth plan as it continues to develop and acquire both corporate office and logistics properties,” said Thomas McDonald,
Equity International’s chief strategic officer, adding that Ter-
ranum represented “the first of hopefully multiple investments
in Colombia.”
Equity International said Colombia presented “an attractive
investment destination” because of its strong GDP growth and
business-friendly policies, which have attracted many multinational corporations to the country, particularly Bogota, where
the number of multinationals has more than doubled since
2002. The demand for quality office and
industrial space has likewise increased,
and the local real estate market has been
quickly shifting from tenant-owned to institutionally-owned and leased properties,
the firm said.
Meanwhile, José Ignacio Robledo, Terranum’s chief executive officer, said the
company was interested in partnering
with Equity International for its “wealth of
expertise in corporate real estate in Latin
America and company-building globally.”
Terranum Development, formed in
2007, is a subsidiary of real estate company Terranum, which is jointly owned
by Estrategias Corporativas, a Colombian
investment bank, and the Santo Domingo family of Colombia, a global investor
across a wide range of industries.
Since 1999, Equity International has invested in a total of
20 companies in Latin America, Europe, Asia and the Middle
East. They include six firms in Brazil representing the homebuilding, logistics, retail, corporate property and real estate
finance sectors, as well as homebuilders in Mexico, China and
Egypt.
PERE | 30 AUG 2011