Equus Capital Partners Closes Fund X at $361 Million for VF Outlet Center in Philadelphia

Equus Capital Partners Ltd., a Philadelphia-based private equity real estate fund, recently held final close of its 12th discretionary, co-mingled value-added real estate fund, Equus Investment Partnership X. (Fund X), at $361 million, just exceeding its target of $300 million.

Some investors in the fund include the San Joaquin County Employees Retirement Association, Municipal Fire and Police Retirement System of Iowa and the West Virginia Investment Management Board.

Equus Capital said its Fund X is currently about 50% invested across 11 properties in the office, multifamily, and lab/R&D sectors located in the East, Midwest, Southwest and Western regions of the U.S. Equus said many of the assets in the fund are being repositioned via a combination of physical renovations, lease-up or raising property rent rolls.

This month, Equus acquired the VF Outlet Center at 801 Hill Ave. in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Following the acquisition, Equus announced a $70 million redevelopment plan to transform the more than 1 million-square-foot site into a walkable mixed-use campus featuring office, retail and restaurants. Jerome Kranzel, a senior vice president with CBRE's Capital Markets Group, marketed the property on behalf of the seller.

As part of that plan, Equus executed a 150,000-square-foot lease with UGI Energy Services (UGI) to consolidate the firm’s regional offices into an adaptive reuse of one of the site’s original buildings. The property was 35% leased at the time of acquisition.

“As we sought buyers for the VF Outlet Center, it was important to find one committed to redeveloping this historic property in a way that enhanced the Reading community - and we found that in Equus,” said Rick Ott, General Manager of VF Outlet, the seller. “We are excited to be part of the redevelopment as we continue to operate the VF Outlet store at the center.”

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