Macquarie Brings Presidio into the Fold

NEW YORK CITY-Macquarie Group said Tuesday it’s acquiring Presidio Partners LLC, a real estate private capital firm based in San Francisco. Terms were not disclosed; the acquisition will create a 19-member private capital team that has raised a combined $30 billion from 390 institutions across the globe since 2003. Earlier this summer, Macquarie brought in a CMBS team as part of its credit trading business.

“The addition of the Presidio team to Macquarie’s existing real estate platform will bolster our real estate offering and increases investor and client coverage across all major developed markets and key emerging markets,” says Chris Green, co-global head, Macquarie Capital Advisor’s real estate group, in a statement. He adds that Presidio’s base in the US and Europe provides “a natural complement” to Macquarie’s position in the Asia Pacific region. The private capital team will be supported by Macquarie’s broader real estate advisory, equities and debt capital markets business, according to a release.

Brett Robson, global head of Macquarie Real Estate Private Capital Markets, adds that the company is seeing “an increasing co-dependence of private and public capital in real estate transactions along with an increased globalization of capital flows.” Presidio’s four founding principals will join Macquarie as managing directors following the deal’s closing, which is expected to take place in the fourth quarter of 2010. They’re Jack Berquist, Alan Braxton, Desi Co and Markus Trice.

Macquarie’s acquisition of Presidio follows its July hiring of a six-member CMBS team based in New York. The commercial mortgage finance and CMBS team is led by Randy Reiff, who worked for Bear Stearns and JPMorgan Chase before becoming president of Spartan Capital. Reiff leads a team that also includes Mark Lebowitz, James Conopask, Simon Breedon, Matthew Weinstein and Andrew Flack.