WREAA Fund II, a UW-Madison student-led fund, is open and looking for real estate investments! We seek to deploy $2.5 million of capital through equity investments in commercial real estate by May 2025. The managing graduate students in the Wisconsin School of Business’s Real Estate Private Equity (REPE) Track source, underwrite, and invest in opportunities across the country. The 30 graduate students in the REPE courses are taught by Mark Eppli.
WREAA Fund II is comprised of outside capital, mainly from alumni, which is invested to deliver real returns for investors while supporting the real estate program. The fund targets core-plus and value add equity investments.
Investment Criteria
WREAA Fund II (“Fund”) targets core-plus and value-add equity investments. The Fund’s expected returns remain 12-18% levered IRR (net of fees) with a minimum equity multiple of 1.5x. The Fund expects to deploy $2.57 million over the next 9 months.
- Property Type: The Fund will target investments in multifamily, industrial, and groceryanchored retail centers. The Fund will also consider asset types including but not limited to: student housing, senior living, and medical office.
- Geographic Area: The Fund will focus on secondary and tertiary markets but will also consider primary markets. The Fund believes that secondary and tertiary markets continue to benefit from the ongoing demographic changes and migration patterns throughout the country.
- Property Level Risk: The Fund will accept property level risk consistent with the Fund’s mission of seeking its target return metrics. As such, the Fund will invest in core-plus and value-add, and existing assets. While investments will focus on a core-plus and valueadd risk profile, the Fund will consider opportunistic investments in markets with strong demographics. The Fund will avoid development opportunities with entitlement risk.
- Investment Amounts: LP investments of $250,000 to $700,000 per deal (5-15% of the fund)
- JV Partnership Terms: The Fund will reject JVs that require recourse, environmental guarantees, or guarantees to cover capital calls. The waterfall structure and fees paid to the sponsor shall be commensurate with the risk profile of the investment opportunity along with the sponsor’s experience and financial wherewithal.
- Sponsor Quality: The Fund recognizes the importance of sponsor quality in every investment. The Fund will consider every sponsor’s ability to operate a property, financial wherewithal, reputation, track record, and current real estate investment schedule. Additionally, a detailed analysis will be performed of a sponsor’s cash investment in an opportunity relative to the fees taken by the sponsor during the hold period. Sponsors are expected to provide quarterly reports, annual budgets, and K-1 tax reports in a timely manner.
Deals can be submitted to our group email: WSBPE@wisc.edu. We will sign NDAs, and our students understand the importance of confidentiality.