JLL unit to acquire commercial real estate lender

LaSalle Investment Management has entered an agreement to make a majority acquisition of the $1.2 billion debt fund business of Latitude Management Real Estate Investors.

LaSalle is a wholly owned, operationally independent subsidiary of real estate company Jones Lang LaSalle.

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to be completed during the first quarter of 2019.

Latitude is a US-based commercial real estate lender providing short-term, floating-rate loans against middle-market commercial real estate assets.

Upon closing, the Latitude debt business will join LaSalle's North America private equity platform, which comprises $21 billion of the company's total $60 billion in assets under management and is led by Americas CEO Jason Kern.

Latitude President and CEO Glenn Sonnenberg and executive vice president Chip Sellers, along with managing directors Brett Mayer and Craig Oram, will continue to lead the debt fund business. The senior management team of Latitude will retain a minority ownership position and will be actively involved in the ongoing strategy, product development, and growth planning process. Additionally, Latitude’s 20 employees will continue to operate under the same structure.

Latitude primarily focuses on originating new bridge loans for value-add and transitional properties in sustainable growth markets throughout the US. Its management team and platform has closed more than $3 billion in financings across all primary commercial real estate property types.