PHILADELPHIA-The $475-million Rubenstein Properties Fund LP is targeting office properties, primarily in CBDs and their surrounding suburbs throughout the Eastern time zone. Through its affiliations, however, it can move to other parts of the country and also take on larger transactions, such as mixed-use complexes for redevelopment, releasing and repositioning.

The fund is the first from Rubenstein Partners. David Rubenstein, former president and CEO of Rubenstein Co., and principals of that company formed this partnership following Plymouth Meeting-based Brandywine Realty Trusts' $600-million acquisition of Rubenstein Co. in fall 2004. Eric Schiela, COO of Rubenstein Partners, tells GlobeSt.com it is one of seven independently owned and operated private equity funds that fall under the umbrella of Independence Capital Partners. All are co-located here at Cira Centre, "which allows us to share back-office services and also cross-pollinate ideas and expertise."

Dean Adler and Ira Lubert, who head Lubert-Adler Real Estate, are among the fund's sponsors, and their firm is also a member of Independence Capital. They along with David Rubenstein and other members of senior management have committed $25 million to the fund whose contributors are primarily educational endowments along with select corporate pension funds and high net worth individuals. The opening fund exceeded its initial target of $400 million.

Rubenstein Partners' area of expertise is in the office sector and its sights are set primarily on Boston; Central and Northern New Jersey; Philadelphia; Wilmington, DE; Baltimore, MD; suburban Maryland; Washington DC; Northern Virginia, Atlanta and Southeast Florida. "If the right opportunity came along outside the East, say Nashville or Indianapolis, we'd be interested," Schiela says. "We're not focusing on macro pictures, but are an opportunity-by-opportunity driven investor."

Specifically, he says, "We're looking for larger, more complicated transactions, from bricks and sticks to properties that require redevelopment, releasing or repositioning. Nothing is too small, and there's really no maximum we can spend. In mixed-use, for example, we'd handle the office component and bring in others, such as Lubert-Adler, for the retail part."

Other members of Independence Capital, in addition to Lubert-Adler and Rubenstein are Quaker BioVentures, LLR Partners, LEM Mezzanine, Chrysalis Capital Partners and LBC Credit Partners. Together, the seven companies have approximately $6 billion of capital under management.