Hugh J. Ward III, senior managing director and head of real estate at Constitution Capital Partners

ANDOVER, MA—Locally-based private alternative investment firm Constitution Capital Partners has formed a new national real estate investment unit that will be comprised of a team formerly employed by Dallas-based Lone Star Funds and affiliates.

The new entity—Constitution Capital Real Estate Partners—will have offices in New York City and Chicago and will be led by Hugh J. Ward III, senior managing director and head of real estate at Constitution Capital Partners. Most recently Ward served as senior managing director and co-head of real estate investments at Lone Star North America.

The six-member real estate team was instrumental in helping Lone Star acquire more than $20 billion of real estate loans and properties in North America, Constitution Capital reports. The team has a more than 150 years of combined commercial real estate investment experience.

The team will engage in a value-add strategy focused on identifying under-managed and under-capitalized assets and will seek to create value by improving management, performing incremental leasing and increasing rents via strategic capital improvements.

Constitution Capital Real Estate Partners' primary target asset classes for investment include Class B apartments/workforce housing, Class B/A office buildings, e-commerce oriented industrial properties and full and select service hotels located across the United States. The company did not divulge any investment target for the new unit.

Daniel M. Cahill, a managing partner at Constitution Capital Partners, says “We have closely followed the real estate sector for a long period of time and feel that we now have the right investment team to enter this attractive and evolving marketplace. Having known and worked closely with Hugh dating back more than 30 years to our time as members of the corporate audit staff at General Electric Company, I have had the pleasure of following his career closely and trust that his experience, track record and most importantly, leadership, will transition well into our firm.”

“Joining Constitution Capital is an ideal fit for our team and we are very pleased to be a part of such a unique opportunity,” Ward says. “The firm has established itself as a leading investor across multiple asset classes in North America, and we could not be more excited to build a real estate business within Constitution Capital and leverage their outstanding platform.”

Earlier in his career, Ward was managing director and head of real estate for the ZAIS Group, director of mergers and acquisitions for Vornado Realty Trust and managing director, large transactions group for GE Capital.

Constitution Capital is an alternative asset manager focused on private equity, private credit and now real estate. Since its inception in 2008, the firm has managed approximately $3.1 billion in commitments.

In addition to its Andover, MA headquarters office at 300 Brickstone Square, Constitution Capital opened its New York City office (545 Fifth Ave.) in early 2017. The company's Chicago office is located at 676 N. Michigan Ave.