“American International Group Inc. AIG -2.40% is planning to jump back into U.S. property investing, reversing yearslong efforts to downsize its real-estate business in the wake of its near-collapse and government bailout in 2008.
AIG until recently had been dismantling what was once a $24 billion real-estate portfolio packed with trophy properties around the world to help pay back U.S. government loans and keep the company afloat. Its investing has been limited primarily to a few European deals with a single partner.
But now AIG is beginning to make plans for fresh investments across the U.S. that will begin later this year.
A real-estate division of the New York-based company has reached out to developers of new apartment buildings in major metropolitan areas, said people familiar with the matter.
“We’ve done multifamily deals with them before, and we’re interested in working with them again,” said Hal Fetner, president and chief executive of New York developer Durst Fetner Residential LLC who has been contacted by AIG about new developments.
AIG hasn’t set specific targets on the size of its future investments in real estate, but people familiar with the insurer say that eventually it will amount to hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
The company once acquired flashy properties like a Vermont ski village, Shanghai office towers and a Tokyo shopping mall. This time, a humbled AIG has set its sights lower: The U.S. apartment market is where it is focusing now, said people familiar with the matter.
AIG was one of the financial groups that expressed interest in a $100 million development project in Montclair, N.J., a one-time Jaguar dealership that developer Pinnacle Cos. plans to convert into an apartment complex with retail, commercial and office space, said people familiar with the matter. It also has held discussions with brokers or developers in California and the Southeast U.S., the people said….”
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