NEW YORK CITY-Activity is increasing as foreign investors,including South Koreans, Germans and Canadian pension funds, aredrawn to the now-depreciated properties in the United States. As ofOctober 1, 2010, total transactions totaled $4.5 billion, exceedingthe $3.7 billion transacted in all of 2009, says Dennis Pollack,senior managing director of the new private placement practice ofEdgeRock Realty Advisors, an independent investment banking firmdedicated exclusively to the real estate sector.

“The world changed as we know it,” Pollack tells GlobeSt.com.“But people believe the market has bottomed out and stabilized.”Edgerock, which is based in Manhattan, was formed in October 2009by FTI Consulting and Compass Advisors as a niche investment bankfocused solely on real estate. Initially, Edgerock concentrated ontraditional advisory work, but the company was increasingly beingasked to do mergers and acquisitions. The decision was made to setup a private placement company, with Pollack recruited to lead theteam.

“What excited me was that this was an entrepreneurial companywith lots of resources,” says Pollack, the former partner andsenior managing director at Valens Capital Management, aninvestment management firm that makes private placements.