CNL Commercial Real Estate Rebrands to Foundry Commercial

ORLANDO, FL--(Marketwired - January 19, 2016) -  CNL Commercial Real Estate, the multi-city commercial real estate firm headquartered in Orlando, has rebranded to Foundry Commercial. The rebrand comes just months after the organization announced its spinoff from its former parent company, CNL Financial Group, in September 2015.

The mutual decision to spinoff from CNL Financial Group via a management-led buyout by CNL Commercial Real Estate and its new joint-venture investment partner, HQ Capital Real Estate, was made in order to allow both companies to focus on developing their respective platforms. Since then, the CNL Commercial Real Estate leadership team has been diligently working to select a new name and brand for its nearly decade-old company that pays homage to its legacy, while simultaneously symbolizing a new era of organizational growth and development.

 "We thought long and hard about a name that represents who we are and the future of our company before arriving at Foundry Commercial," said Paul Ellis, chief executive officer of Foundry Commercial. "The primary function of a foundry is to cast metal into purposeful shapes, which reminded us of how our new stand-alone company came to be. Nine years of hard work went into building our company and, moving forward with that foundation, we are partnering with HQ Capital Real Estate to seek to create a new form in commercial real estate. A foundry is also relevant in our industry, as it is essentially where commercial real estate begins; with the creation of steel that will later serve as the foundations for building structures. Our foundation is serving others."

That passion for service is what prompted the company's first official act as Foundry Commercial: a platform-wide initiative called Serve Week, during which associates in cities across the Southeast will volunteer with one of a number of charities and not-for-profit organizations.

"We have experienced tremendous growth in our organization since inception and even more so since our spin-off," said Nick McKinney, strategy officer at Foundry Commercial. "We are now serving more customers through 240 associates across the South in all areas of commercial real estate. Our belief is that, in the commercial real estate space, there remains a lot of consolidation in the race for scale, and the customer is the one left behind. What better way to remind ourselves of the importance of service than to spend a day volunteering with the organizations in our community that focus on the serving and caring for those in need?"

Serve Week kicks-off on February 8^th and ends on February 13^th.

About Foundry Commercial

Foundry Commercial is a full-service real estate services and investment company with 240 employees and nearly 30 million square feet of space under management across the Southeast and Texas. Foundry provides corporate services, brokerage, leasing, building management and project management services, and is the largest real estate service provider to religious and not-for-profit organizations in the Country. Foundry also includes a development and investment platform that is fully integrated into its services business, leveraging its local market expertise to control more than $500 million in advantaged investment opportunities in partnership with its clients. Foundry Commercial was founded as CNL Commercial Real Estate in 2007 and launched as Foundry in 2015 through a management led buyout. For more information, visit http://www.foundrycommercial.com.

About HQ Capital Real Estate

HQ Capital Real Estate L.P. is a member of HQ Capital, a leading independent alternative investment manager with currently more than US $12 billion in assets under management in private equity and real estate. Since 1989, HQ Capital Real Estate has invested in over $12.5 billion of U.S. real estate ranging from core and value-add acquisitions to opportunistic joint-venture developments. The company currently manages approximately $5.7 billion of real estate across its funds, managed accounts and third party asset management business. HQ Capital has more than 130 employees in Frankfurt, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Dallas, Washington D.C., London, Hong Kong and Shanghai. For more information, visit hqcapital.com.