Dekel Capital Kicks Off JV-Equity Investment Platform

By Barbra Murray, Contributing Editor

Shlomi Ronen, Dekel Capital

Real estate merchant bank Dekel Capital has introduced Dekel Strategic Investors, a new real estate JV-equity investment platform that, along with partner Mountain Capital Partners, will offer $3 million to $10 million of equity to capital-seeking developers of multi-family and retail projects.

“We are filling a void in the capital markets; institutional funds rarely invest less than $10 million per transaction and it becomes challenging for developers to syndicate equity amounts larger than $3 million,” Shlomi Ronen, managing principal of Dekel Capital, told Commercial Property Executive. “So our targeted equity investments of $3 to $10 million are designed to fill that void.”

DSI will provide JV-equity structured as limited partner or general partner equity or mezzanine debt, and expects to further appeal to developers by being amenable to projects in secondary markets in a climate where institutional equity funds often have tunnel vision for the very top metropolises. As Brian Shirken, principal of Mountain Capital, noted in a prepared statement, “The competitive advantage of our capital is its flexibility.”

Right now, Ronen told CPE, the market is ripe for a platform like DSI, particularly given the state of the multi-family sector. “We see a window of opportunity in multi-family that is a result of pent-up demand due to lack of new construction combined with stable economic growth and a low interest rate environment.”

With only a soft launching earlier this year, DSI has already funded five investments for a total of $3 million of equity. Dekel Capital’s goal is for DSI to invest $50 million in its first year.