Henley Investment has taken the next step in its rapid expansion with the recent announcement of the firm’s first US offices and creation of Henley USA. Redwood supported with the launch.
The UK headquartered private equity firm opened offices in Boston, Massachusetts and Orange County, California. Henley USA will be headed by Garrett Solomon, the founder of Corbelis, an award winning, nationally recognized residential land development and management company.
Henley USA will operate the same opportunistic entrepreneurial platform as its European counterpart, seeking to invest in the best operators across the real estate market with a particular focus on arbitrage, dislocation and distress. It will launch with five US based team members and expects to actively seek further talent to grow its presence. In addition, Henley USA and Corbelis will also create a new venture called Henley Corbelis, which will continue the existing Corbelis business and act as an operator on direct deals when appropriate.
Redwood has been working with US counterparts to manage the timing of the announcement on both sides of the pond. The news was broken in an exclusive with Property Week and quickly followed by coverage across the UK trade press as well as US trade and relevant state media.
Henley USA kicked off its operations by picking up Henley’s rollout of Waterwalk Hotel & Apartments, with the intention of opening five Waterwalk franchises in the near future. This follows Henley’s $100 million investment in the US’s first serviced apartment brand last year. The firm has already generated a strong pipeline of other deals across a number of asset classes, that when completed, would create $500 million in assets under management by the end of 2016.
The expansion follows a strong twelve months for Henley in the UK and Europe. Early this year the company announced Henley Camland’s purchase of a significant portion of Eastern Quarry, Ebbsfleet, one of the UK’s largest residential development sites and the most politically sensitive. In addition, at the end of last year, Henley360, the firm’s European arm, made a number of notable acquisitions in Holland and Germany. The company looks forward to similar success in the US.