Newmark raised a $500 million joint venture between New York-based real estate private equity firm Castle Park Investments and an unnamed real estate firm focused on manufactured housing, recreational vehicle (RV) resorts and campground assets across the US.

The joint venture was seeded by the acquisition of a 700-plus pad portfolio across the Ohio and Pennsylvania markets. Newmark is also arranging the debt financing for the venture, although details were not made available.

The team was led by Newmark’s co-heads of debt & structured finance Jordan Roeschlaub and Dustin Stolly, together with Director Eden Abraham.

The strategy will target manufactured housing communities across the US, where the asset presents “a strong affordability option relative to other forms of housing.” In the RV space, the strategy will target RV resorts and campground “destination assets” where there is often a strong demand for long-term reservations.

“Manufactured housing as an asset class is one of the only real estate sectors that experienced positive earnings growth in the last two recessions while showing significant resilience during the pandemic,” noted Roeschlaub.

Founded in 2020 by Brad Scott and Evan Bernstein Castle Park owns and operates 18 assets with more than 2,800 units and more than $150 million in assets.