James Fielding Funds Management, the funds management arm of Mirvac Group, will launch at least one direct property fund this year targeting the wholesale industry following the appointment of Grant Hodgetts to the newly-created position of head of wholesale funds.

James Fielding currently has close to $280 million of its $3.4 billion Australian funds under management in wholesale with the remainder in retail funds and listed vehicles. Mirvac also has $3.1 billion in wholesale US property funds following the launch of its US-based Quadrant Real Estate business earlier this year. “We’re seeing a lot more of the superannuation funds in Australia reviewing their property allocations… They are more comfortable with looking at unlisted property,” Adrian Harrington, chief executive officer of James Fielding, said. Hodgetts was previously head of property at Westpac’s Specialised Capital Group prior to that he was head of unlisted wholesale property at Macquarie Bank. “We will be appointing more people over time as Grant rolls out a strategy and new funds,” Harrington said. James Fielding currently manages a value-added opportunities property fund for ARF which has $50 million in funds under management and a wholesale hotel fund, managed in conjunction with JF Meridian, which has $250 million in funds under management. “We think there’s emerging scope to have us play in that space,” Harrington said.