Alpine Grove Partners

John Cavalier, the firm's co-founder and Managing Partner, leads the investment committee. Cavalier previously held senior roles at Morgan Stanley Real Estate, Soros Fund Management, and Westbrook Partners before launching Alpine Grove in 2007. The firm operates with a concentrated partnership structure, meaning investment decisions are typically made by a small group of senior principals rather than through a broad committee process.

Alpine Grove sources primarily through bank relationships, special servicers, and insolvency practitioners, reflecting its focus on distressed and special-situation real estate. Cavalier's network from his Morgan Stanley and Soros tenure provides access to off-market loan portfolio sales and restructuring mandates. The firm's in-house operational capability — it can take over and run hotels during workout — makes it a preferred counterparty for lenders seeking a reliable exit from non-performing exposures.

Alpine Grove invests across the capital structure. The firm acquires non-performing loan portfolios, originates mezzanine and bridge financing to overleveraged sponsors, and takes direct equity positions in assets requiring operational turnaround. The mix shifts depending on where pricing dislocations are most acute — in the years following the European sovereign debt crisis, loan acquisitions dominated; more recently, the firm has balanced structured credit with direct equity in repositioning plays.

The firm focuses on Western and Southern Europe. Confirmed markets include the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands. Alpine Grove avoids Central and Eastern Europe, preferring jurisdictions with established insolvency frameworks and liquid exit markets. The UK and Spain have historically represented the largest allocations within the portfolio.

Alpine Grove manages closed-end commingled funds alongside separate accounts. Its flagship vehicles — Alpine Grove European Real Estate Fund I and II — are drawdown funds with typical 10-to-12-year lives. The firm also manages co-investment vehicles alongside its main funds and has executed direct deals on behalf of large family-office LPs that wanted concentrated exposure to specific assets.

Alpine Grove avoids core office, retail, and industrial assets, as those sectors do not fit its distressed and operational-turnaround model. The firm stays almost entirely within hospitality, residential, and mixed-use — property types where value can be created through active management, rebranding, or unit-level repositioning rather than passive market appreciation. Pure development without existing distress is also outside the mandate.

Exits typically occur through asset sales to institutional core and core-plus buyers once repositioning is complete and income streams are stabilized. For example, after restructuring the Hoxton Amsterdam, the stabilized hotel was sold to a European institutional fund. The firm's willingness to hold assets for five to seven years post-acquisition allows it to complete full operational turnarounds before marketing to buyers who require stabilized yield.