Overview

Starwood Capital Group’s affiliated Luxembourg office serves as the management, pooling and investment platform for the European investments of the Firm’s opportunistic real estate funds. The office has overseen more than 75 Starwood Capital fund investments since 2002, representing underlying assets in locations including the U.K., France, Spain, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Poland, Czech Republic, Belgium and the Netherlands, as well as Luxembourg.

Starwood Capital Group is a private investment firm with a primary focus on global real estate. Since its inception in 1991, the Firm has become one of the largest institutional real estate investors in the world, investing in properties within every major real estate asset class.

Starwood Capital’s funds require a European investment platform for a variety of commercial reasons—predominantly for asset segregation purposes, as well as for lenders’ familiarity. The Firm identified Luxembourg as the preferred jurisdiction for this platform due to the country’s location in the heart of Europe, political stability, multicultural and highly skilled workforce, strong legal system, attractive tax framework, and sophisticated and internationally recognized fund industry.

With its platform, Starwood Capital anticipated the strategic objective of the acquisition of Luxembourg real estate assets and the use of Luxembourg fund vehicles. Investment vehicles organized under Luxembourg law are widely considered a reliable “brand” by international investors.

Starwood Capital’s Luxembourg team comprises more than 20 experienced investment and administrative professionals with a deep knowledge of Luxembourg and European real estate-related business practices and regulations. The team reviews investment recommendations and monitors, manages and coordinates the acquisition, asset management and disposition of Starwood Capital funds’ European investments. These professionals ensure active and efficient involvement in the development of underlying assets and their ongoing operations. In addition, the office supervises the administration, tax, compliance, accounting and treasury functions associated with local-country real estate investments.

Starwood Capital’s team is housed within Vertigo—landmark office buildings totaling more than 26,000 square meters previously owned by Starwood Global Opportunity Fund X. A number of blue-chip international companies have chosen the Vertigo campus as the headquarters for their Luxembourg operations. Featuring state-of-the-art amenities, the assets are the country’s first office properties to receive Haute Qualité Environmentale certification—the equivalent of Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology (BREEAM) recognition.