John Sobenes

JER Partners (JER) seeks to identify opportunities whereby their investors can capitalize on North American and European market mispricings. They diversify investments across countries, regions, asset types, investment styles and tenants. The firm pursues the real value in strategically and opportunistically selected real estate investments across North America and Europe. JER focuses on six North American strategies: (1) retenanting/repositioning (2) renovation (3) portfolio acquisitions/aggregations (4) development opportunities with strategic operating partners (5) public to private arbitrage and (6) other opportunities that result from the dislocation of capital, such as senior housing. JER seeks assets where there is the possibility of substantial tenant rollover in order to attract new tenants that will pay market rents that are significantly higher than the departing tenant. They seek to acquire assets from motivated sellers who are not in a financial position, or who elect not, to invest the necessary capital to keep an asset competitive in the local market. The firm looks to purchase large portfolios of multiple assets from corporations, financial institutions and governments. JER believes that the strategy of focusing on multiple asset investments helps avoid risks faced by many who exclusively make large investments in single assets. They strive to build focused portfolios of similar assets in conjunction with local operating partners. JER pursues select development opportunities with industry-leading, local operating partners in the US who complement JER's skill set and possess specific product, geographic or deal sourcing expertise. JER believes that the ongoing privatization trend presents an opportunity to acquire portfolios and high quality, institutional grade properties at a discount to market value. The firm focuses their European investment efforts on a number of core markets. These include the EU member states, Norway and Switzerland. JER focuses on target markets where the property fundamentals are strong, where they have good relationships with strong operating partners and where they face limited competition from other bidders. In Europe, JER follows a number of investment themes including (1) portfolio creation in selected markets and sectors (2) portfolio acquisition and break-up (3) active targeting of regional locations and peripheral markets (4) corporate and government divestitures and property held by private equity buy-out candidates (5) public-to-private transactions and other involvement in M&A transactions in the real estate sector (6) niche sectors and (7) opportunistic development. JER seeks to assemble European portfolios of similar assets in conjunction with specialized operators to take advantage of investors' willingness to pay more for a portfolio than the aggregate value of its individual assets. Their portfolios offer diversification benefits and multiple exit routes where assets can be sold individually in smaller sub-portfolios or as a portfolio either directly or through the public equity markets. JER believes that regions and centers outside of Western European capital cities offer attractively-priced opportunities. They seek to identify markets which they believe will become institutional markets in the future. They look for opportunities to execute innovative and profitable externalizations or sale and leaseback transactions with a target investment size of 50-100 million, often with limited competition. JER sees potential opportunities to acquire quoted European real estate companies which are not eligible for REIT status and as a consequence might trade at attractive discounts to net asset value in the future. JER looks for sectors that are temporarily out of favor or which are believed to become more institutionally acceptable in the future such as hotels, residential, pubs, nursing homes, senior and student housing, educational premises and car dealerships. JER believes there are development opportunities in the EU accession countries and they seek to secure pre-leases, fixed contracts and specialized local development partners.

Functions as a College/University

Owns commercial real estate properties