The company said it had reached a first close for Iremis Hotel Immobilienfonds I, which has a semi open ended 10-year structure and an eventual equity target of €200 mln.

IREMIS was established just 14 months ago by co-chairman and founder Jochen Schäfer-Suren together with Jos Short, also founder and co-chairman. Both are experienced real estate investors. Short is the previous founder of Internos Global Investors, which he established with Andrew Thornton. Internos was eventually acquired by US group, Principal Financial Group, in 2017.

IREMIS' debut fund is a hotel real estate investment vehicle, which is the speciality of Schäfer-Suren given he spearheaded hotel funds while at Internos.

Explaining the strategy, IREMIS said it was targeting high-quality, well-located city centre hotels in the Eurozone. Detailing more of the approach, it said the focus was on ‘dynamic markets’ with a balance between leisure and business demand and strong, strategic operating partners with hybrid leases.

It may pursue core/core-plus to value added investments.

Hotels have exhibited positive trading figures of late. But IREMIS said it was also playing into use changes in the operator, brand, lease structure, repositioning, refurbishment, and refinancing opportunities amongst others things to create value. Value add investments may even include ‘holistic transformation’ of obsolete real estate.

Schäfer-Suren said: ‘The first closing just 14 months after Jos Short and I set up IREMIS as a specialist real estate investment manager, is a major achievement and a milestone.'

Intreal advised the firm on the fund launch and administration. The fund is domiciled in Luxembourg.

Peter Lenhardt, IREMIS director and head of hotel and leisure, said: ‘The current hotel real estate market is tailor-made for us as a specialist with an active investment management approach.’

‘After over a decade of loose monetary policy driving up values almost indiscriminately across asset classes, today´s level of uncertainty, change and volatility requires more than ever specialist investment managers.’

‘Our wide network across the hotel industry enables us to select the best strategic partners, so we can create value and generate attractive returns for specific real estate asset classes.’