ClearRock Properties Launches

WASHINGTON, DC-Two real estate finance veterans have set up shop in New York City, forming a real estate investment, development and operating company. Called ClearRock Properties, the three-week old firm’s primary geographic focus will be in the Washington, DC, New York City and Boston areas. The target is $10-million to $100-million projects in these cities and their surrounding suburbs.

Steve Grant and Doug Winshall head the company. From 1999 to 2009, Grant was a managing director at Tishman Speyer Properties; Winshall ran an acquisition and operating platform for Greenstreet Real Estate Partners and served as executive vice president at Taconic Investment Partners. They first partnered in 1997 to establish Trizec Properties’ New York office.

The company’s initial focus will be on office-backed debt, Grant says. They are looking at a handful of deals right now, ranging between $20 million and $150 million; one is in Washington, DC, one in Fairfield County, CT, one in Westchester, NY and two are in Manhattan, he says.

Grant and Winshall have identified investors interested in this type of product; however they are not raising capital for a fund or have any plans to do so. “The capital partners we will be working with range from institutional investors to high net worth people,” Grant says. The company will co-invest in any deals it originates, he adds.

He declined to speculate on deal volume the company might close. “We are interested in finding good deals–how that plays out in terms of volume or investment levels remains to be seen.”