Blackstone real estate managing director rushes back to Harro
David Harrison’s Charter Hall has reclaimed a former dealmaker from Blackstone.
Craig Newman, a managing director in the private capital firm’s real estate group, has resigned and is returning to the fold at Charter Hall, where he ran its $12.5 billion wholesale office fund for three years until 2017.
That wasn’t his only high-profile role at the $9.4 billion funds giant. Newman also had a stint managing Charter Hall Office Trust, a $2.3 billion unlisted wholesale partnership that housed a portfolio of 15 prime real estate assets. This included 1 Martin Place and 2 Park Street in Sydney and 171 Collins Street in Melbourne.
It comes a year after Mark Harrison, or “Little Harro”, as he’s known in the market, jumped from Blackstone to GPT Group, taking up the role of chief investment officer.
Back to Charter Hall, and it’s fair to say “Big Harro” is on a hot streak. He delivered upgraded guidance for full-year earnings in February, backed by a strong performance in its investment business in the first half.
That upgrade was accompanied by an equally upbeat assessment of the wider commercial market cycle, a correction Harrison told analysts was all but over.
“Over the group’s history, we have seen the most exciting growth periods following correction events, and we see the coming period as no exception, as we partner with a broad range of existing and new investors to capitalise on opportunities we can exploit,” he said at the time.
Charter Hall’s accounts showed it has weathered the downturn, picking up $1.6 billion in gross equity inflows over the 2025 first half, a tally equivalent to the total gross equity raised for the 12 months of its 2024 financial year.
