Stamford’s Aligned Asset Managers LLC has acquired a majority interest in global specialty real estate advisory and investment firm The Townsend Group.

Cleveland-based Townsend allocates real estate capital on a discretionary and non-discretionary basis for more than 85 institutional clients from offices in Cleveland, London, San Francisco and Hong Kong.

"Townsend represents the ideal platform investment for Aligned," said David Minella, CEO of Aligned, a portfolio company of leading private equity firm GTCR. "It embodies our strategy of focusing on industry leaders in growing asset classes, and we look forward to helping Townsend build on its strong track record and deep relationships with a world-class institutional investor base."

Townsend’s existing leadership team will maintain responsibility for management of the business. The transaction will broaden Townsend’s employee ownership base, and management will continue to own a material stake in the company. Led by its founding partners, Terry Ahern and Kevin Lynch, Townsend has a deep team of 32 seasoned senior real estate professionals who average more than 15 years of experience. All members of the management team will remain with the firm upon completion of the transaction.

"We are pleased to partner with Aligned," said Terry Ahern, Townsend’s co-founder and CEO. "Aligned is an ideal partner for Townsend as we continue to expand the specialized real estate advisory capabilities we offer our clients across a global platform."

Aligned was formed in January 2011 when GTCR partnered with Minella, who was formerly CEO at Value Asset Management and CEO of Lichtenstein Global Trust. Aligned was formed to build a leading multi-strategy asset management platform through substantial equity investments in firms across attractive, growing asset classes.