By Joshua Burd
Having completed the sale of the Normandy Real Estate Partners platform, three of the firm’s former principals have offered a glimpse at their next business endeavor.
Finn Wentworth, David Welsh and Giorgios Vlamis are launching a new investment company known as Senlac Ridge Partners, Welsh wrote Monday in a post on his LinkedIn page. While they expect to share more details in the coming weeks, he noted that the entrepreneurial private equity firm will target a broad range of investment opportunities spanning real estate and non-real estate assets and businesses.
The announcement came as Columbia Property Trust, a New York-based real estate investment trust, said it had closed on its $100 million acquisition of Normandy’s operating platform and an interest in three funds, expanding its footprint in New York, Boston and Washington, D.C.
“We are very grateful to our many business partners, colleagues and friends who worked with us and shared in our collective success during the past two decades,” the Senlac partners wrote on a landing page for their new firm. “Our business and reputation have been driven by the longstanding relationships we share across the industry, the mutual trust we enjoy with so many talented professionals and our solid track record of committed investing and value creation.”
Columbia announced in October that it would acquire Normandy Real Estate Management LLC.
As part of the transaction, Welsh will serve as chairman of the investment committee for Normandy’s funds III and IV, which are part of the acquisition, while Wentworth is slated to join Columbia’s board of directors.
“This is an exciting time as we embark on our next chapter through the formation of our new investment firm,” the Senlac principals continued. “Senlac Ridge Partners is an entrepreneurial private equity firm targeting a broad range of investment opportunities spanning real estate and non-real estate assets and businesses. We’ll look to utilize our extensive network and 80 years of combined experience to directly acquire real estate assets as well as undertake strategic entity level investments and pursue programmatic commitments with real estate operating companies in select urban and transit-oriented suburban markets throughout the United States.”
The Columbia transaction also calls for Normandy co-founder Jeff Gronning to become executive vice president and chief investment officer of the REIT. The company, meantime, announced several other new leadership positions for former partners and leaders of Morristown-based Normandy: Gavin Evans has been named executive vice president, acquisitions, while Paul Teti will serve as senior vice president, leasing and asset management.
Other appointments of senior employees from Normandy include Steve Trapp, senior vice president, construction and development; and Steve Smith, senior vice president, property management.
Normandy sells operating platform, fund interests to Columbia Property Trust
