Alpaca Debuts Private Equity Real Estate Platform

Alternative investments manager Alpaca launched a private equity real estate platform – Alpaca Real Estate (ARE) – to capitalize on current market dislocations and generate incremental alpha for its investors.

ARE comes out of the gate with an undisclosed amount of dry powder provided by GCM Grosvenor on behalf of several investors. The platform is led by co-founders and managing partners Daniel Carr and Peter Weiss, who previously worked together in the JP Morgan real estate & lodging investment banking team.

Founded in 2012 and based in New York, Alpaca seeks investment opportunities that require recapitalization, repositioning, strategic capital, and physical transformation.

Carr joins from Ares Management, where he spent 10 years as a principal focused on lining up joint venture equity for investments. “Alpaca Real Estate will focus on deployment into high-conviction sectors that have been negatively impacted by capital markets but exhibit strong underlying tailwinds,” he said.

Weiss joins from the AllianceBernstein private equity spinout Prospect Ridge, where he was most recently a managing director overseeing investment management and real estate acquisitions.

Founded in 2012, Alpaca VC has invested in more than 100 early- and mid-stage startups, with a focus on proptech, sustainability and climate-related companies.

GCM Grosvenor has been a key Alpaca VC supporter. The firm’s manager program Empire GCM RE Anchor Fund recently funneled millions to Alpaca VC Fund III and Alpaca Built World Fund I on behalf of the New York State Common Retirement Fund.