Castle Park Investments (CPI) has formed a $500m (€470m) venture with an unnamed global real estate private equity firm to invest in manufactured housing communities (MHC), recreational vehicle (RV) resorts and campground assets in the US.

Newmark, which helped raise the capital, said it would also arrange debt financing for the joint venture, which will focus on core-plus and value-add assets.

The venture has acquired a 700-plus pad portfolio across strategic markets in Ohio and Pennsylvania as its seed portfolio.

Jordan Roeschlaub, Newmark’s co-head of debt and structured finance, said: “Manufactured housing as an asset class is one of the only real estate sectors that experienced positive earnings growth in the last two recessions while showing significant resilience during the pandemic.”

Dustin Stolly, also a co-head of debt and structured finance at Newmark, said: “With the continued limited supply of MHCs and RV resorts, this opportunity was extremely well received by the capital markets community due to the nation’s continued need for affordable housing.”

Evan Bernstein, co-founder of Castle Park Investments, said: “We are excited about the opportunity to grow our platform and to deliver exceptional results for our new partner. The capital commitment is a testament to our dedicated and hard-working team at Castle Park.”

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