NEW YORK CITY-TPG Capital is ramping up its real estate platform, hiring managing principal Avi Banyasz away from locally based Westbrook Partners to create a new program. A spokesman for Ft. Worth-based TPG confirms a report in Private Equity Real Estate that Banyasz will be joining the firm at the end of the month; through a spokesman, Westbrook declines to comment.
PERE reported that Banyasz, head of Westbrook’s New York City acquisitions group and one of 13 managing principals there, is expected to work alongside Kelvin Davis, TPG’s head of North American buyouts. Among TPG’s most recent forays into commercial real estate, the firm last month agreed to buy the Catellus name and a portfolio of retail and mixed-use assets from Denver-based ProLogis for $505 million.
In a memo to Westbrook’s limited partners, which was seen by GlobeSt.com, the company says its management recognizes that TPG offered Banyasz “a unique opportunity” to help create a real estate program within TPG’s broader business lines. Banyasz’s departure “provides growth opportunities to a number of Westbrook’s seasoned professionals,” according to the memo.
The memo adds that the company’s US acquisitions team is “well equipped to absorb Avi’s existing responsibilities,” and points out that Banyasz, a 13-year veteran of the company, was not included within any “key man” clauses in fund partnership agreements. Westbrook managing principal and COO Sush Torgalkar will oversee the asset management of all of its New York properties, according to PERE.
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