The two organizations have partnered on co-investments since 2013, beginning with 125 W. 25th St., an office property in Manhattan's Midtown South submarket. The Normandy/NTTUD JV sold the repositioned 138,000-square-foot building this past December to Swiss pension fund AFIAA for $150 million, nearly three times what Normandy and NTTUD had paid for it three years earlier.

More recently, Normandy and NTTUD acquired a single-story office building at 1015 18th St. NW in Washington, DC for $39 million, closing on their first DC co-investment in December 2015. The acquisition came a few months after Normandy recapitalized 575 Lexington Ave. in Midtown Manhattan with a partnership including NTTUD in a transaction valued at $510 million, and made a Boston deal in partnership with NTTUD, picking up Two Oliver St. for $79 million.

This past summer, the partnership acquired another Midtown South property, 797-799 Broadway, for a reported $101 million. “Our goal when we first started looking at the US market in '13 was to identify a best-in-class real estate operator, and we chose Normandy based on their strong track record and local expertise,” says Hideyuki Yamasawa, EVP, global business department, NTTUD.

NEW YORK CITY—Having already made five co-investments with Normandy Real Estate Partners, Japan's NTT Urban Development Corp. is now making an investment in Normandy itself. The Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. subsidiary has taken a 15% equity interest in Normandy's management platform; the value of the stake was not disclosed. Morristown, NJ-based Normandy manages over $1.5 billion of equity capital on behalf of institutional investors.

The alliance will expand both growth initiatives in real estate investment for both NTTUD and Normandy in the latter's target markets of New York City, Boston and Washington, DC. The focus will remain on office and mixed-use properties in both urban and transit-oriented suburban locations.

Normandy will continue to be overseen and controlled by its three founders and partners, Finn Wentworth, David Welsh and Jeff Gronning, and will continue to raise commingled real estate funds and joint ventures. Its current investment vehicle, Normandy Real Estate Fund III LP, has over $1 billion of purchasing power.

“Japanese investors are expected to be a growing and important source of equity capital targeting real estate investment in the US,” says Wentworth. “Our affiliation with NTTUD will leave us strategically well positioned for future growth.”

The two organizations have partnered on co-investments since 2013, beginning with 125 W. 25th St., an office property in Manhattan's Midtown South submarket. The Normandy/NTTUD JV sold the repositioned 138,000-square-foot building this past December to Swiss pension fund AFIAA for $150 million, nearly three times what Normandy and NTTUD had paid for it three years earlier.

More recently, Normandy and NTTUD acquired a single-story office building at 1015 18th St. NW in Washington, DC for $39 million, closing on their first DC co-investment in December 2015. The acquisition came a few months after Normandy recapitalized 575 Lexington Ave. in Midtown Manhattan with a partnership including NTTUD in a transaction valued at $510 million, and made a Boston deal in partnership with NTTUD, picking up Two Oliver St. for $79 million.

This past summer, the partnership acquired another Midtown South property, 797-799 Broadway, for a reported $101 million. “Our goal when we first started looking at the US market in '13 was to identify a best-in-class real estate operator, and we chose Normandy based on their strong track record and local expertise,” says Hideyuki Yamasawa, EVP, global business department, NTTUD.