Los Angeles, August 21, 2013 – Urban Partners, LLC, Harbor Urban, LLC, and Mack Real Estate Group, three leading full service real estate firms known for high quality urban infill development, today announced the formation of Mack Urban, LLC, a premier West Coast real estate investment and development company. Uniting top-tier development talent with outstanding capital relationships, Mack Urban aims to be the premier long-term real estate investment, development and ownership company with a focus on urban multifamily development on the West Coast, particularly the Pacific Northwest and Southern California regions.
Headquartered in Los Angeles with offices in Seattle, Mack Urban is led by CEO Paul Keller, President and CIO Matthew Burton, and Managing Directors Jim Atkins and John Gunn. Primarily through Richard Mack, Mack Real Estate Group will coordinate closely regarding key strategic decisions on capital partnerships, target markets, and new projects. The principals of all the partner companies share a vision for long-term investment, development, and advisory services in the West Coast gateway cities markets that have demonstrated strong demographic and economic growth.
Mack Urban combines the existing portfolios of Urban Partners and Harbor Urban in Los Angeles, Portland and Seattle, where a majority of active projects, more than 3,500 units, are currently in planning, under construction, or in lease-up. The new company will seek flexible capital for projects on a transaction-by-transaction basis, and present focused fundamental, detailed development and investment opportunities for institutional and other investment partners.
The goal is to offer exciting new opportunities for investors to partner in the development and long-term ownership in Mack Urban’s unique niche, which is focused on community-enhancing properties in thriving, urbanizing, and forward-looking West Coast cities. “We are combining our strengths to allow us to expand significantly, after 15 years of successful joint development and investment projects with the Mack Family,” said Mr. Keller. “The long standing relationships of all the principals for Mack Urban combines Urban’s track record of distinctive expertise in urban infill projects with the Mack group’s unmatched real estate knowledge and global capital markets relationships,” he added.
Mack Real Estate Group is the current real estate investment enterprise of the Mack Family. In addition to its financial investment in Mack Urban, Mack Real Estate Group will play a hands-on role by providing strategic advice, counsel, and expertise as well as access to institutional investors.
“Mack Urban is well-positioned to be an enduring owner of superior properties in key cities along the West Coast and in the Pacific Northwest,” said Richard Mack, CEO of Mack Real Estate Group. “Mack Real Estate Group’s overall approach is to accumulate significant long-term real estate holdings in markets that demonstrate lasting positive demographic and economic trends that drive demand for real estate. Urban Partners is one of the best West Coast development platforms we have had the opportunity to invest with. Together as Mack Urban, we will fill a unique niche,” he added.
“We all share a vision for long-term development, investment and management in West Coast urban markets,” Mr. Burton added. “The Mack name represents long-term family office ownership, while the Urban brand denotes the best-in-class West Coast development platform, and we believe this combination has unmatched potential to develop a stellar portfolio. In the Pacific Northwest it is a logical succession of what the Bullitt family started generations ago. Harbor Properties, our Seattle subsidiary, is returning to its roots of long-term family ownership that allows it to maintain deep ties to the community it serves.”
History unites the Mack family, with a multi-generational history in Seattle, with Harbor Urban and Harbor Properties, which has been active in Seattle development since the turn of the last century. The shared vision is reflected in the name Mack Urban. With highly-specialized expertise in urban design and construction, Mack Urban has the breadth and strength to operate along the West Coast while maintaining community expertise, relationships, and brand identity in hyper-local markets such as Seattle and Portland.
Mack Urban gains a further competitive edge through its expanded capital markets access and knowledge, which provide the flexible capital for long-term holdings. “The new, aggressively competitive Mack Urban will have the flexibility and power to enter transactions that take advantage of new opportunities, but with a view to the long term,” Mr. Burton noted.
Mack Urban will operate the partners’ merged portfolios, and will capitalize on substantial opportunities in growing markets to bring their distinctive, best-in-class projects to more communities, as well as better position their in-house real estate services.
About Mack Urban
Mack Urban is a premier West Coast real estate investment and development firm that owns, manages and builds environmentally sensitive, urban infill projects designed to preserve neighborhood character and strengthen communities. The firm focuses on long-term holdings, with investments in diverse asset classes including transit-oriented development, high-rise residential, mixed-use multifamily, adaptive reuse, and student and senior housing.
About Mack Real Estate Group
Mack Real Estate Group (MREG), founded by William, Richard, and Stephen Mack, is an enterprise devoted to managing the Mack Family’s capital, institutional capital, and high net worth capital through direct and partnership investments in real property and related securities. MREG brings together the expertise to recognize and analyze new real estate opportunities with the necessary speed and flexibility to maximize them, while retaining the ability to hold assets long-term and maintain hands-on management.
MREG currently specializes in domestic and international real estate investment, development and financing opportunities. Currently, the company directly owns and manages approximately 6 million square feet of commercial real estate and real estate developments, and holds partnership interests in entities controlling in excess of 60 million square feet. Additionally MREG is the majority owner of Winthrop Property Management, which provides third-party property and construction management services to approximately 11,000 multifamily units and 10 million square feet of commercial buildings.
