Cerberus Capital Management is quietly raising billions of dollars for an opportunistic real estate fund.

The New York-based alternative asset manager has a $3B target for its Cerberus Institutional Real Estate Partners VII fund, which is expected to close in the first half of 2026. The fund will target data center and multifamily assets as well as residential mortgage-backed securities, special situations and opportunistic credit origination.

The fundraising effort was first reported by Bloomberg, citing anonymous sources. Cerberus declined Bisnow’s request to comment Thursday morning.

Cerberus, which was founded in 1992 and says it manages roughly $65B in debt and equity assets, is targeting an internal rate of return from 13% to 16% for the fund, according to Bloomberg.

The largest proportion of capital raised is expected to go toward asset aggregation strategies, which involves buying several properties, often in the same region, and consolidating operations under a single platform to cut costs through optimization, increasing net operating income.

Cerberus has a global presence and has a broad portfolio that includes middle-market lending, corporate credit, real estate and mortgage-backed securities. The money manager is known for picking up distressed assets and embarking on corporate turnarounds.

It raised $2.5B in 2021 for its fifth institutional real estate partners fund, after raising $4B in 2017. The firm has more than doubled its assets under management in the last decade.

Cerberus is joining a crowded field of private funds pushing deeper into commercial real estate and looking to capitalize on market dislocation driven by credit issues, elevated interest rates and opaque pricing.

Private funds are on track to raise $129B in 2025, up 38% from last year’s especially lean total, as giants like Blackstone, Brookfield and Carlyle build up war chests to make deals.