The real estate arm of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) announced today that it has acquired an (undisclosed) ownership interest in Mexico Retail Properties (MRP), according to a Reuters report. 

Founded in December 2001, MRP is a Mexican company affiliated with Denver-based real estate private equity firm Black Creek Group (BCG).  MRP develops, builds, and manages shopping malls (centros comerciales) and other retail properties in Mexico.  BCG’s website also indicates that BCG is affiliated with Corporate Properties of the Americas, an “institutionally owned industrial property company operating throughout Mexico” that “has invested over US$1 billion in Mexican industrial real estate” since its inception in 1998.  The managing principals of Black Creek Group include John Blumberg, Jim Mulvihill, Tom Wattles, and Evan Zucker.

Based on a Denver Business Journal report, it appears that The Blackstone Group’s Equity International Properties Ltd., which was founded by Chicago real estate mogul Sam Zell and sold by Zell to Blackstone, made an investment of approximately $42 million in MRP in early 2004.

There is significant interest among investors in commercial retail real estate in Mexico, thanks in large part to Mexico’s emerging middle class.  Oralé!