AEW Closes Largest Property Fund To Date But Misses $2B Target

AEW Capital Management closed its 10th flagship North American real estate fund with commitments of almost $1.8B, its largest fund to date, the company announced Tuesday.

AEW Partners Real Estate Fund X failed to hit its $2B fundraising target amid challenging capital market conditions.

But it did surpass the fund's predecessor, AEW Partners IX. The previous fund raised $1.2B in 2021. Fund X launched in April 2023 and spent over two years on the market. 

The fund is aimed at pursuing opportunities across multiple sectors with the flexibility to deploy capital into dislocated or mispriced assets. Its initial seed portfolio includes positions in sectors such as senior housing, multifamily, industrial and retail, Boston-based AEW said in the release. 

“Looking ahead, we’re excited to be investing in what we believe is one of the most compelling market environments of the past decade,” Tony Crooks, managing director and senior portfolio manager of the AEW Partners Funds, said in the release.

The complete investor makeup of the fund is unclear, but it did receive commitments from multiple U.S. public pensions, according to PERE. Those commitments include $150M from the Teachers’ Retirement System of New York City and $100M each from the New Mexico State Investment Council and the Florida State Board of Administration.

Fund X has no defined sector or regional allocations, but AEW will deploy the capital into roughly 40 to 50 investments ranging from $25M to $40M each, PERE reported. AEW staffers emphasized senior housing opportunities as particularly attractive in its overtures to investors, PERE reported.