With an office in London, Harrison Street has a strong presence in Europe. In January 2018, for example, it announced a partnership with Crosslane Property Group UK Ltd. to jointly develop a portfolio of four student housing properties totaling 1,267 beds in the university cities of Leeds, Coventry, Portsmouth and Swansea. That same month it also formed a JV with Uliving, the dedicated student housing brand of Bouygues Group, to target student housing development projects in top-tier UK university cities. Harrison also acquired at the beginning of the year a portfolio of more than 1,000 student apartments in Germany from MPC Capital AG. The company has also made several notable dispositions including the sale of a 13,666-bed portfolio to a joint venture including the Scion Group LLC, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and GIC, for approximately $1.1 billion.

Multiple Strategies, Investors

Harrison Street has established investment products across multiple risk/return strategies. Its investors include sovereign wealth funds, public and corporate pension funds, endowments, insurance companies, foundations and family offices. “In addition to its best-in-class returns, we were particularly attracted to Harrison Street's focus on attractive real estate asset class strategies; massive segments offering significant, demographically-driven growth opportunities with defensive cycle characteristics,” Friedrichsen says.

Berkshire Capital acted as financial advisor and DLA Piper acted as legal advisor to Harrison Street and the management team, while Three Ocean Partners acted as financial advisor and Winston & Strawn acted as legal advisor to certain of Harrison Street's shareholders. Sidley Austin acted as legal advisor to Colliers.