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Appointments Signal Growth For LaSalle Investment Management In Europe |
London and Chicago, IL -- (October 6, 2001) -- To further strengthen its continental European investment team, LaSalle Investment Management announced two senior appointments.
Simon Marrison will assume responsibility for the continental team based in LaSalle's Paris Office. Previously, he held the position of Managing Director of Rodamco France. He was responsible for building the company's EUR 1 billion portfolio of assets in retail, offices and warehouses, as well as the management of assets. Prior to that, Marrison spent seven years working for Healey & Baker in their Paris office where he rose to the position of head of Healy & Baker's investment team in France.
David Ironside will lead LaSalle Investment Management's acquisition team responsible for Germany, Central Europe and the BeNeLux region. Ironside joins LaSalle Investment Management from REAL I.S. in Munich, Germany, where he held the position of Director of Property Acquisition. He was responsible for foreign acquisition and strategy. Prior to this, Ironside spent seven years working in Germany for Jones Lang Wootton (now Jones Lang LaSalle), the parent company of LaSalle Investment Management.
Both will work closely with LaSalle Investment Management's Paris-based European experts. Roberto Roca will continue to direct acquisition activities throughout Europe and Helen Garbutt will continue to oversee the firm's asset management activities on the continent.
"I am delighted that we could attract Simon and David to our organization," says Jeff Jacobson, LaSalle Investment Management's European Chief Executive Officer. "Each brings an established track record of more than 15 years of continental European investment experience. Simon and David's arrivals, combined with the 22 investment and asset management professionals in France and Germany and the 150 investment management specialists in the UK and the Netherlands, ensure that LaSalle Investment Management has unmatched investment capabilities throughout Europe."
Marrison and Ironside join the team as LaSalle Investment Management launches its LaSalle Euro Growth II fund, a EUR 500 million real estate investment fund which will invest in strategic properties across Western Europe, predominantly in the Eurozone countries of France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium.
"Our method of combining a top down research driven investment approach with hands on asset management to the properties we acquire is well suited to the current real estate market conditions in Europe," said Roberto Roca, Director, European Acquisitions, LaSalle Investment Management.
LaSalle Investment Management's research department and acquisition specialists are seeing the following trends in the European market: · The growing desire of corporations to sell non-core real estate assets and increase their operating and return on capital. · A continued shortage of modern and efficient office, warehouse and retail space that creates opportunities to redevelop and reposition well located assets. · Growing cross-border investment within Europe. · Historically low vacancy rates and barriers to new supply that provide a cushion to any short-term slowdowns in occupier demand due to the economic slowdown. · Attractive yields relative to borrowing rates.
LaSalle Investment Management, Inc., a member of the Jones Lang LaSalle group, is a global real estate investment firm with more than $23 billion of assets under management. LaSalle Investment Management is active across a range of real estate capital and operating markets including private and public, debt and equity. Jones Lang LaSalle is the world's leading real estate services and investment management firm, operating across more than 100 key markets in approximately 35 countries on five continents. The company provides comprehensive and wide-ranging integrated expertise on a local, regional and global level to owners, occupiers and investors.