Hazelview Investments Inc., a private money manager specializing in commercial real estate, is combining its listed real estate business with that of Presima Securities ULC in a strategic move to scale its global platform.
Under the transaction, Toronto-based Hazelview will assume Montreal-based Presima’s investment management contracts, the companies announced in a joint statement. Key portfolio managers, including Marc-Andre Flageole, head of Presima’s REIT team, will join Hazelview and continue to run their existing strategies, according to Hazelview Managing Partner Samuel Sahn.
The deal will add more than $500 million in listed real estate assets to Hazelview’s platform. This compares with roughly $1.7 billion the firm already oversees in public real estate securities, within a broader organization managing more than $10 billion, Sahn said.
The partnership will expand research coverage and operational scale across offices in Toronto, New York, Hamburg, and Hong Kong, according to the statement. The combination comes as investor appetite for real estate investment trusts strengthens.
“We’re seeing significantly renewed investor demand,” Sahn said, citing outperformance for REITs versus broader equity benchmarks in the United States. He noted that the move is not a response to weak flows but rather a proactive step to capture growth.
Hazelview sees the most compelling opportunities in the U.S. REIT market, particularly in sectors such as data centres, senior housing, industrial, and hotels, where improving fundamentals are supporting rental growth and occupancy, Sahn added.
Hazelview will adopt its own branding for the combined platform, and there will be no immediate changes to portfolio management or investment processes for Presima mandates, Sahn confirmed.
