How Investment Startup Roxborough Plans to Become a Serious Player

Stockbridge Capital vet Matt McCormick was just hired to help acquire and manage all investments across the Western US for The Roxborough Group. We chatted with Matt to get the details on the company's game plan to become one of S.F.'s hottest rising investment managers.

Matt (here at the firm's office at 180 Sansome) tells us the company is close to putting a number of deals under contract. Managing partner Marc Perrin hails from private equity giant Starwood Capital so locking down residential land and hotel deals will be likely. They aren't into market timing and purchasing the “$600-plus-a-square-foot Silicon Valley" properties, Matt says, but rather the below replacement cost older (but well-located) product, where there could be a repositioning or value-add play. But Matt says Roxborough won't limit itself to office buildings, and plans to go after all asset classes.

One of the most recent deals Matt worked while at Stockbridge was the acquisition of Rollin Street Flats in Seattle: a trophy core multifamily asset with potential condo conversion capabilities. Matt knows the market has been rising for a few years, so the firm will seek investments shorter in duration that can be repositioned and sold in two to four years. "It's all about preserving capital and acquiring assets that can survive cycles if markets turn," he says.

Matt tells us Roxborough sees opportunity in targeting assets below the radar of larger institutional private equity funds, mostly in the $20M to $50M space. The bigger boys are pouncing on the $50M-plus transactions, but that arena is too crowded, he says. One scenario would be working with a developer on a smaller opportunity to produce higher risk-adjusted returns based on lack of capital playing in that space. Acting as the operating partner is also an option. Marc founded Roxborough in 2013 and bought The Bay Club Co with JMA Ventures and York Capital Management last year.