The CenterCap Group

The real estate industry is facing inflation and supply chain issues. Businesses have to manage through higher interest rates, increased material prices, unavailability of land and labor and uncertain transaction markets.

This is where The CenterCap Group comes in.

A boutique real estate-focused investment bank, CenterCap provides strategic advisory, capital-raising, and corporate transaction services to CRE operators, REITs, and fund managers. It was founded by its senior leadership after realizing how banks lacked “boots on the ground” industry knowledge. CenterCap provides a unique formula of industry-informed ideas, steady objectivity, and extensive transactional experience and relationships specific to the real estate industry. “What’s our goal? Be a first call for CRE corporates whenever they need strategic advice. Philosophically, we truly buy into the concept of being lifecycle advisors by ensuring we deliver insightful, thoughtful, and customized advice to clients as they think about growth,” says Deborah Smith, Co- Founder and CEO of The CenterCap Group.

CenterCap brings together expertise in capital markets, sector knowledge, and transactional experience – within one team. It’s an all-inclusive approach. “Real estate is all we do. We put ourselves in the nexus between capital providers and users. We bring it all together. We believe it is the only way we can deliver wholistic, customized advice,” says Lisa Beeson, a Principal at CenterCap. “Sure, we are transaction-oriented, but it is about the right transaction, at the right time, for the right reasons. We are more focused on delivering successful transactions, than simply a transaction. The former is harder to achieve than the latter.”

CenterCap’scapital-raising transaction expertise includes portfolio acquisitions, recapitalizations, joint venture programs, corporate and early-stage funding. CenterCap provides customized client-specific roadmaps. “We are ingrained in this sector. We have a good sense of strong capital-raising opportunities, and what we think can and can’t get done. We don’t take on every assignment, only those where we have strong conviction. We have a pulse on the industry and top-tier client selection,” says Smith.

In the past 18 months, CenterCap has completed over a dozen assignments running the gamut of their service offerings, with publicly announced deals including the sale of Redwood Capital to EQT, the merger of Common Living with Habyt to form the largest global coliving player, and the sale of Pearlmark to Conning.

CenterCap doesn’t just provide transaction advice. Their model is unique. They have a very active consulting practice that provides strategy, organizational, and capital positioning expertise, too. They have steadily expanded their consulting services to investors, including insurance companies, pension plans, and fund managers on allocation, underwriting, and investment strategies. They also provide valuation and fairness opinions, given they are independent with no trading or lending capabilities.

Beyond advisory, CenterCap prides itself on being at the forefront of new ideas and doesn’t mind being out in front talking about what they are seeing. CenterCap published early views on niche sectors including coliving, active adult living, and 3D printing, and is a vocal proponent of the industry being open minded to the role of doing old things in new ways and embracing new things to come. Today, many of these new ideas garner investor attention.

Lastly, CenterCap is entirely women-owned. They have built an unafraid reputation for tough assignments (often contrarian). They have earned loyalty from their long-term clients with their commitment to providing strategic, thoughtful advice. They take risk with their ideas but have proven success to back them up. Their latest move? Take the full package of services and leverage them through direct investing - good teams with good ideas in a start-up framework. It’s definitely all happening at The CenterCap Group.