Walker & Dunlop Teams With Ivanhoé Cambridge In Commercial Property Investment Venture

Walker & Dunlop, Inc. WD has announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary Walker & Dunlop Investment Partners is teaming with the Canadian real estate company Ivanhoé Cambridge on a U.S.-focused joint venture spanning multiple commercial real estate sectors.

What Happened: The new joint venture, which was first reported in the GlobeSt.com trade journal, will make preferred equity investments in multifamily, student housing and manufactured housing properties in the top 25 U.S. metro areas. The investments will aim at stabilized properties with three-to-10-year investment timelines.

"We're excited to grow our relationship with Ivanhoé Cambridge through this program by capitalizing on the low cap rate, high-liquidity conditions driving demand for gap financing in the market today," said Sam Isaacson, president of Walker & Dunlop Investment Partners. "Our product is designed to help sponsors achieve their desired leverage targets with incremental proceeds at a much lower cost of capital than common equity."

Ivanhoé Cambridge is a global real estate subsidiary of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, one of Canada's leading institutional fund managers.

Related Link: Benzinga

What Else Happened: Separately, Walker & Dunlap announced the hiring of P.J. McDevitt as managing director of its affordable housing finance team. McDevitt was previously a director at Greystone and a production management representative at PNC Financial Services Group Inc PNC. McDevitt began his commercial real estate career at Walker & Dunlop as a senior analyst.

Last month, Walker & Dunlop acquired Alliant Capital, Ltd. and its affiliates, Alliant Strategic Investments and ADC Communities, for $696 million. The Alliant deal was Walker & Dunlop's third acquisition in three months: it completed its purchase of Zelman & Associates, a housing research and investment banking firm, in July and picked up TapCap, a technology firm that provides real-time and online quotes for commercial real estate debt, in June.

Photo: Phillip Pessar / Flickr Creative Commons.