Created by Former AREA Property Execs, Mack Real Estate Group Debuts

By Barbra Murray, Contributing Editor

Richard Mack, of Mack RE Group

There’s a new real estate company on the scene. The Mack Family, longtime players it the real estate world, have just officially launched Mack Real Estate Group, an entity that will manage the family’s capital, in addition to institutional capital and high net worth capital, through independent and partnership investments in real estate.

Heavy hitters are behind MREG. The new firm was established by Stephen Mack, William Mack and Richard Mack, the latter two of which founded the successful international real estate management firm AREA Property Partners, which was sold in July to Ares Management L.L.C. Alas, MREG kicks off with the backing of decades of industry experience and well-honed expertise.

“We are disciplined investors, guided by intensive study of demographic and economic trends that drive demand for real estate,” Richard Mack, CEO of MREG said in a prepared statement.

MREG also comes to the table with a portfolio of properties and developments totaling 6 million square feet–and those are just the owned and managed assets. Additionally, the company holds interests in groups that control more than 60 million square feet.

MREG is concentrating its efforts on various real estate pursuits, including development at home and abroad, as well as investment and financing activities. The company’s objective, simply put, is long-term real estate ownership, and the partners have mapped out a careful plan for obtaining that objective; a plan that, as Richard Mack said, consists of “careful oversight of what we own, bold but analytical thinking about new opportunities, and quick, careful execution.”

The new company is laser-focused, but that’s not to say that it has tunnel vision. MREG owns a majority interest in Winthrop Property Management, a third-party property and construction management services provider with a portfolio encompassing roughly 10 million square feet of commercial buildings and 11,000 multi-family units. Additionally, MREG just joined forces with Urban Partners L.L.C. and Harbor Urban L.L.C. on the formation of Mack Urban L.L.C., a West Coast multi-family investment and development company for which MREG will provide strategic advice, counsel and coveted access to institutional investors.

MREG begins its existence with New York City as its home base; however, within six months’ time, the company anticipates expanding its offices to the West Coast with satellite locations in Los Angeles and Seattle, and into Europe with the opening of an office in London.

It’s been a busy summer of new real estate companies coming to the fore, from real estate services providers to investment entities. Earlier this month, ESmith Legacy, a real estate development and asset management firm, partnered with industry veterans Sharon Morrison and Brant Landry to form services firm E Smith Realty Partners. In July, Thomas Company entered the market as a provider of services in the single-tenant and net leased investment arena; TruAmerica Multifamily, founded by former president of Kennedy Wilson Multifamily Management Group, entered the ring as an investment firm targeting multi-family housing in the Western U.S.; and Martin Bronstein and Ralph Howard, founders of global real estate advisor The Situs Cos., which was snapped up by Helios AMC in 2011, launched commercial real estate investment firm BHW with an eye on commercial assets in Texas.