HOBE SOUND, FL-Locally based Main Street Land Partners LLC has plans to launch its first private equity real estate fund at the end of this week. The fund will target land and medical properties, along with grade A self-storage facilities and class B neighborhood retail plazas within the Southeast, Main Street managing member Todd Marshall tells GlobeSt.com.

Main Street Realty Fund 1's target is $33 million, one-third of which is committed and ready, with the balance being raised from additional investors, says Marshall. He, along with partner Craig Marshall, have formed a number of successful partnerships in their 23 years within the commercial development and management business, he says. Under the company name Stow-A-Way Storage, the duo formed funds Storage Partners One and Two, which involved private placement offerings for developing properties which created cash flow for investor groups, according to Marshall. The partners also specialize in seeking entitlements to raw land.

"With the Main Street Fund we are putting a strong focus on growth areas or markets in Texas, North Carolina, Georgia and Florida, looking at the highest-growth metro markets," says Marshall. "We truly believe in the 'shrink to the center' theory," honing in on assets that are closer to the urban dense areas where there is an in-place transportation infrastructure, he adds.

So far there are no deals under contract for the Main Street fund. Marshall says the key to the success of real estate partnerships like these is the ability to understand data and to know where the market shifts are headed in order to maximize investor yield.

"We're coming right into some of the best buying opportunities of our lifetimes," he says. "I think a lot of smart people with equity are thinking that way, so the timing for the formation of funds could not be any better."