"Our conservative investment discipline led us to dramatically decrease our investment pace between 2005 and 2008 as the markets became overheated," explains Starwood Capital Group's chairman and CEO, Barry Sternlicht, in a release. "In 2009, however, we returned to the markets aggressively and have since invested nearly $1.5 billion of total equity capital across all of our investment vehicles."

Starwood's chairman pointed to the acquisition of the Corus Bank's $4.5-billion loan portfolio, which it obtained through a partnership with the FDIC, as an example of Starwood's investment capabilities.

"The combination of these two new funds, in addition to Starwood Property Trust, provides Starwood with a significant pool of capital from which we can originate real estate loans, acquire performing and nonperforming loans and acquire ownership of real estate across virtually all asset classes throughout the world," says Jerome C. Silvey, EVP and CFO of Starwood.