NewcrestImage

Based in Dallas, NewcrestImage is a family office that manages a portfolio of real estate assets and alternative investments, with a focus on the hospitality sector. With more than four decades of experience, the company’s leadership is a collective of hands-on, industry professionals dedicated to achieving the highest standards of investment and operational excellence within the communities they serve.

“We've been in business for about 10 years,” said David Perel, Chief Investment Officer. “We buy, develop, and sell hotels. We currently own about 60 properties—we had 30 at the beginning of 2022, most of which we sold in a single transaction, and then we bought more than 70 during 2022. So, we've been extremely active.”

NewcrestImage had been working with a third-party administrator who didn’t offer an investor portal, which made communicating with investors difficult. “We were constantly creating spreadsheets in response to investor requests, and we weren’t always sending consistent and accurate information,” said David. He went in search of a solution that would facilitate more efficient communication through a central repository for investor data. He discovered the Juniper Square platform—which, according to David, “made our lives a whole lot easier.”

David said one of the things his team appreciated the most about the software platform was the ability to display historical performance data and share it with LPs in a fast and easily digestible way.

NewcrestImage was getting ready to launch a new fund when they realized they could streamline operations by using the same partner for fund administration as they were using for their new investor portal. “Once we had the portal and we realized the synergy between the two, we made the decision to transfer,” David said.

David didn’t intend to change fund administrators, but once the Juniper Square portal was up and running, “it was natural to roll them together,” he said.

David said that the functionality and consistency of the integration has been hugely beneficial to the NewcrestImage team. The Juniper Square professional services team prepares capital calls and distribution notices for his finance team to review and approve. All of that work is logged in the system so the investor relations team knows the information is getting to their LPs. “Centralizing all fund management document storage and investor communication has led to significant time savings for our firm.”

David also highlighted the ease of transitioning work as his team evolved. “Within the last year, we’ve had four different internal staff who were responsible for the valuation process,” he explained. “And Juniper Square has made those transitions very easy because the system maintains a chronological history of how the valuation records are done. I don’t have to go digging through old spreadsheets and different files.”

By far, however, the biggest value Juniper Square’s fund administration services has brought to NewcrestImage is through their people. “I’ve been very impressed with the whole Juniper Square organization on the professional services side,” said David. “They’re always prompting me with tasks that need to happen and when they need to happen, creating an organized and repeatable process for getting things done. I can set my watch by it."

His advice to other investment firms looking for a third-party fund administrator? In addition to knowing the specific nuances of the real estate market, he said, “Make sure you trust the people you're working with."