As an emerging investment manager going into Q1 2020, we were in the process of building and scaling our assets under management or “AUM” with our next investment. This was a very unique event-driven opportunity where we had the opportunity to pre-lease a large vacant building to a blue chip office tenant in conjunction with buying it.
We opted not to move forward with a $95M acquisition/redevelopment that was scheduled to close in April 2020. This protected our investors from a steep, near-term decline in value despite having worked on this project for over 6 months and having incurred over $200,000 in pursuit costs.
As stewards of capital to our investors, and with complete respect and transparency to the Seller and their broker’s need to preserve the property value, hitting the pause button and stepping aside was the right thing to do…as painful as it was.
As fiduciaries to our investors, it boils down to protecting and preserving investors at all costs, even if that means it comes out of your own pocket as the sponsor.