Toronto-based Fiera Properties Ltd., a joint venture between Fiera Capital Corp. (TSX:FSZ) and Fiera Properties’ management team, Monday announced the launch of its diversified open-ended property fund, the Fiera Properties CORE Fund.
The fund is designed to provide pension funds, foundations, endowments, as well as private investors with a modern “open” investment fund design.
“This is a very exciting time for all of us at Fiera Properties as we are launching the largest Canadian open-ended core property fund in more than 20 years, representing $352 million in equity capital from our investors,” says Stuart Lazier, CEO of Fiera Properties.
The fund has “completed the acquisition of a $160 million portfolio of assets in the fund comprised of prime retail and industrial properties across Canada,” and will “further diversify its portfolio over the next 12 to 18 months with the planned acquisition of an additional $325 million in core income properties,” Lazier adds.
The fund will be managed by Fiera Properties’ experienced real estate portfolio management team, and will be targeting office, industrial, retail and apartment core assets to properly diversify the portfolio.
Fiera says investors will benefit from a core investment strategy that will provide stable and growing income streams combined with careful attention to capital protection, inflation protection, and low volatility in overall return performance. With quarterly openings, the fund is a long-term investment vehicle that gives investors the flexibility to rebalance their exposure periodically.
“This new open-ended fund represents the core of our business plan around which we intend to build other new innovative real estate fund products for our investors. But it is also the continuation of our management team’s successful 20 year track record of providing institutions with state-of-the-art products that best serve their changing investment strategies,” says Lazier.
“Our goal is to create a new multi-fund real estate fund manager that will provide our investors with solid returns, strong governance and contemporary fund designs.”