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Westwind Capital has been launched as a new investment platform targeting life sciences and innovation real estate, as well as the various strands of the rented residential market.
The investment firm, which has been founded by Harrison Street’s former head of Europe, Daniel Gorzawski, will undertake direct investments working in joint ventures with operating partners and developers. Westwind will also consider entry points into schemes through debt.
The new business will embed ESG standards into its operating procedures and all potential transactions will be evaluated through a sustainability lens.
Westwind will seek to be a signatory to the UN PRI by implementing the "Six Principles for Responsible Investing" and will benchmark and report progress across all ESG initiatives transparently, the firm said.
Prior to founding Westwind, Gorzawski built Harrison Street’s European platform as its first employee on the continent and as head of Europe between 2015-2020.
During his tenure at Harrison Street, he oversaw an approximately €3B portfolio comprising 16,000 student beds, 2,600 residential units and over 2M SF across five countries.
Westwind Capital will pursue a pan-European strategy targeting life sciences and innovation real estate and the living sectors, including purpose-built student accommodation, build-to-rent residential, and the more nascent growth sectors of micro-living and co-living.
“While investor interest in specialist residential and, more recently, life sciences asset classes has grown considerably over the past few years, these sectors are still far from mature and benefit from the central theme of chronic undersupply,” Westwind Capital founding partner Gorzawski said in a press release.
“Additionally, having the flexibility to invest in different parts of the capital structure enables [us] to source volatility-induced opportunities, which may be forthcoming in the current environment, and create value for investors throughout market cycles.”
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