SAN FRANCISCO, CA and MIAMI, FL – April 27, 2026 – Embrace Real Estate, a global real estate investment firm, and its affiliate 1823 Partners, an independent asset management firm, today announced their acquisition of Ghirardelli Square, the historic waterfront landmark at 900 North Point Street in San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf district, from Jamestown. Embrace Real Estate, in partnership with Denver-based developer Continuum Partners, will lead the business plan, leasing, and day-to-day operations of the property. The transaction represents a generational transfer of one of the most recognized mixed-use destinations in the country.

Ghirardelli Square encompasses 12 buildings along the San Francisco waterfront, with origins dating to 1862. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places and widely regarded as the first major adaptive reuse project in the United States, the property is home to the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company’s U.S. flagship, a collection of restaurants and retailers, a Fairmont Heritage Place hotel, and the 19-foot illuminated Ghirardelli sign that has been part of the city’s skyline since 1915. The property welcomes nearly nine million visitors each year, supported by a strong base of destination tourism alongside consistent local and regional demand.

Brandon Tarpey, Founder and Managing Partner of Embrace Real Estate, said, “Ghirardelli Square is one of the most iconic mixed-use properties in country, with an unmatched combination of history, location and foot traffic. Our focus will be elevating the merchandising, introducing best-in-class tenants and experiences, and ensuring the Square remains both a premier destination for visitors and a place that resonates with the local community.”

Anant Bhalla, Co-Founder and CEO of 1823 Partners, said, “Our strategy is grounded in enduring value and long-term ownership, partnering with world-class operators and investing in assets that stand the test of time. Ghirardelli Square exemplifies that approach, and we are proud to steward this iconic landmark’s rich heritage in San Francisco for decades to come.”

Mark Falcone, CEO and Founder of Continuum Partners, said, “Ghirardelli Square has been meaningful to San Franciscans and visitors from around the world for generations. We approach this opportunity the same way we approach all of our work, with respect for history, a commitment to the community, and a belief that great places should strengthen the neighborhoods around them. There is real momentum in San Francisco under Mayor Lurie’s leadership, and we see Ghirardelli Square as an important part of that story. We are proud to partner with 1823 and Embrace – who share our community focus and championing of local businesses – and we look forward to earning the trust of San Francisco.”

The new ownership group acknowledged the exceptional work Jamestown has done at Ghirardelli Square over the past decade. Since acquiring the property in 2013, Jamestown restored iconic elements of the Square, such as the Ghirardelli sign and clocktower, executed a successful lease‑up from 55% to 100% leased, secured a curated mix of best‑in‑class local operators, and reestablished the Square as a destination for locals and visitors alike through an unwavering commitment to preserving the character of this San Francisco landmark. During its ownership, Jamestown also entitled as multifamily and sold 915 North Point St., a former ancillary parking garage, to JS Sullivan Development, which delivered 35 units of housing in 2025, and is not part of this acquisition.

Alex Schwiebert, Senior Vice President, West Coast Regional Market Leader of Jamestown, said, “We’ve been proud stewards of Ghirardelli Square for over a decade and believe the property is well positioned for continued momentum under the new ownership team. We continue to believe in the long-term opportunity of San Francisco and are investing in our portfolio of properties throughout the Bay Area, including Levi’s Plaza and Waterfront Plaza in the City’s Northern Waterfront.”

Looking ahead, the new ownership group will focus on strengthening Ghirardelli Square as a world-class, mixed-use destination rooted in community and local relevance. In their business plan for the property, the new owners emphasize thoughtful stewardship, tenant quality and long-term value, ensuring the Square continues to serve San Franciscans and visitors – as well as the surrounding communities – well into the future.

The new ownership group and its leadership teams bring deep expertise in property stewardship and management to Ghirardelli Square. Embrace has extensive retail experience in markets such as New York, South Florida, and Aspen. Continuum Partners has been nationally recognized for its work across a diverse portfolio that includes the Denver Union Station transit neighborhood and the Belmar mixed‑use district, both recipients of the Urban Land Institute’s Global Award for Excellence, as well as Denver’s 9+CO and Market Station, and significant projects in downtown Los Angeles.

About Embrace Real Estate
Embrace Real Estate is a global real estate investment firm and operating platform founded by Brandon Tarpey in partnership with 1823 Partners. The firm combines world-class leasing capabilities with deep institutional relationships and significant portfolio leverage to drive value across a collection of premier assets. Embrace brings an international reach and a hands-on operating philosophy, partnering with leading operators and investors to acquire, reposition, and manage high-profile properties. The platform’s leasing expertise and global network of brand and tenant relationships allow it to assemble tenant rosters and programming that differentiate its properties.

About 1823 Partners
1823 Partners is a registered investment adviser that supports its clients including insurance companies, pension firms, and family office investors with tailored investment strategies that match their risk and return profile. The firm’s focus is on fulfilling its commitment to its investors by backing their real promises with real assets and resilient credit investments. The firm manages a growing number of different private investment strategies, with proven capabilities in real estate, private equity, asset backed finance, and corporate credit. 1823 Partners has offices in Miami and New York, with another office opening later in 2026 in London. For more information, please visit: www.1823.partners.

About Continuum Partners
Continuum Partners is an innovative, award‑winning real estate development and investment firm founded in Denver, specializing in urban mixed‑use and value‑add opportunities. Since 1997, Continuum has overseen more than $3B of development across office, retail, hospitality, multifamily, and mixed‑use projects. Guided by a mission rooted in community design and ecological sustainability, Continuum is nationally recognized for its work in complex redevelopment, adaptive reuse, and community‑focused placemaking. Continuum maintains a broad base of investments, including real estate development and operating businesses such as the Born Hospitality Group, and applies a long‑term, design‑forward approach to unlocking value in underutilized assets while creating enduring benefits for communities and partners. Learn more at https://continuumpartners.com/.

MEDIA CONTACTS

Embrace Real Estate / 1823 Partners:
Jared Levy
Jared.Levy@1823.partners
(617) 233-1172

Continuum Partners:
Alana Watkins
alana@vocapr.com
(303) 916-2752

NEW YORK & MIAMI – April 23, 2026 – Agam Capital, a global leader in insurance-related asset and liability analytics, and 1823 Partners (US) LLC, a differentiated asset management firm focused on insurance-first investment strategies, today announced that they have formed a long-term strategic partnership to serve global insurance companies. The partnership brings access to permanent capital through reinsurance to non-US insurers for in-force risk transfer or capital solutions and co-creation partnerships for new product design and flow reinsurance arrangements.

The partnership provides innovative design and management solutions for policyholder guarantees, enhanced asset capabilities in terms of sourcing, structuring and surveillance, and permanent equity capital to deliver sustained, alpha generation for insurance company partners and resilient outcomes for policyholders and other stakeholders.

The partnership draws on the complementary strengths of its founding members:

  • 1823 Partners’ asset management capabilities across multiple sectors for long-term oriented investors, such as insurance companies, pension plans, and family offices; and

 

  • Agam Capital’s deep expertise in insurance structuring and its proprietary balance sheet management technology platform.

 

Anant Bhalla, Co-Founder and CEO of 1823 Partners, said, “The Insurance industry value chain has splintered over the past 20+ years, resulting in fragmentation and a shift in value economics between liability distribution, balance sheet risk bearing capacity providers, and asset sourcing capability providers. Our unique end-to-end solution provides insurance companies with strong distribution access to the full stack of capabilities required to compete – product design, world-class ALM, access to long-dated capital and resilient, private asset sourcing, structuring, and ongoing surveillance. All of this is supported by ALM 3.0 infrastructure solutions that are required to thrive in a complex and ever-changing environment.”

Chak Raghunathan and Avi Katz, Co-Founders of Agam, said, “The fundamental challenge in insurance ALM has always been that the models in use were designed for a less fluid, simpler world. We have now designed and built a proprietary, AI-driven ALM platform from first principles to handle the complex realities of dynamic, turbulent global capital markets – integrating the full enterprise in real time, with AI agents that can price and manage risk dynamically. This partnership is how we put our combined capabilities to work for the benefit of global insurance companies.”

The Technology Foundation: pALM and LeadAii

Central to this partnership is pALM, Agam Capital’s proprietary asset-liability management platform. pALM is uniquely positioned as a platform that integrates actuarial modeling, asset management, accounting, risk management, and treasury management into a single unified ecosystem – providing a consistent version of truth across the enterprise.

Building on pALM’s foundation, Agam founders have developed LeadAii – a next-generation, multi-agent, AI-driven ALM platform. LeadAii deploys a network of autonomous agents capable of operating in real-time across the full complexity of insurance ALM challenges, from liability modeling and dynamic asset allocation to scenario analysis and stress-testing across interest rate, credit, and longevity risk factors.

LeadAii is built on proprietary large language models developed on open-source foundations and customized exclusively for life and retirement applications. The system operates within a fully isolated agentic framework – with no external data access and no data transfer outside the organization – addressing the hallucination and security risks that limit the deployment of general-purpose AI in regulated financial environments. Together, pALM and LeadAii deliver the turnkey ALM infrastructure that makes the partnership’s end-to-end model operationally viable at scale.

Initial Strategic Focus

The strategic partnership will target the Asian market with an initial focus on the Japanese insurance sector. Japan’s life and retirement industry is undergoing significant regulatory and structural change, creating demand for precisely the integrated solutions offered by the partnership. The team will also pursue select opportunities in other markets where its integrated proposition – technology, access to assets and capital, and structuring expertise operating in concert – can deliver outcomes unavailable through traditional channels.

About Agam Capital

Agam is a global leader in insurance-related asset and liability analytics. Founded in 2016, Agam operates the pALM ecosystem, a differentiated analytical platform for balance sheet optimization across the insurance industry. This proprietary Asset Liability Management (ALM) platform supports Agam’s strategic partners in exceeding their capital and growth targets. With a fully embedded Dynamic Strategic Asset Allocation (DSAA) and Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) infrastructure, pALM supports Agam’s ability to offer one stop, turnkey insurance solutions to global clients in various regulatory jurisdictions. Agam’s team of experts have a global reach with offices in the USA, Canada, Bermuda, India and Japan. In addition, Agam ISAC Bermuda, which offers a comprehensive suite of operational, management and governance services to Bermuda based reinsurers, is fully licensed as a Class E insurer by the Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA).

About 1823 Partners

1823 Partners is a registered investment adviser that supports its clients including insurance companies, pension firms, and family office investors with tailored investment strategies that match their risk and return profile. The firm’s focus is on fulfilling its commitment to its investors by backing their real promises with real assets and resilient credit investments. The firm manages a growing number of different private investment strategies, with proven capabilities in real estate, private equity, asset backed finance, and corporate credit. 1823 Partners has offices in Miami and New York, with another office opening later in 2026 in London. For more information, please visit: www.1823.partners.

About LeadAii

LeadAii is a next-generation AI technology company specializing in multi-agent frameworks powered by a proprietary language model built on leading open-source LLM foundations. Originally focused on the life and retirement sector, LeadAii’s modular architecture is purpose-built to scale across industries, enabling transformation well beyond insurance and financial services. Incorporated in 2025 and headquartered in Austin, Texas, LeadAii partners with forward-thinking enterprises to turn complex workflows into intelligent, automated experiences that drive measurable business impact.

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Agam Capital
Chak Raghunathan | Co-Founder, Managing Partner
craghunathan@agamcapital.com

1823 Partners
Jared Levy
Jared.Levy@1823.partners

LeadAii
Chak Raghunathan
craghunathan@agamcapital.com

Miami, FL – JULY 21, 2025 – 1823 Partners (US) LLC (“1823 Partners”), a differentiated asset management firm focused on insurance-first investment strategies, today announced its official launch. 1823 Partners will initially focus on real estate, asset-backed finance, credit, and insurance solutions, with a multi-billion-dollar asset mandate from JAB Insurance US Holdings, Inc. (“JAB Insurance”). 1823 Partners is a Registered Investment Adviser.

The firm was co-founded by Anant Bhalla, Joachim Creus and Frank Engelen, and is being led by Bhalla as CEO, a seasoned insurance company executive and a pioneer in insurance-focused asset management. 1823 Partners’ approach blends rigorous asset and liability risk management with unique private market opportunities designed to generate enduring value for its clients and their policyholders. The firm will provide asset management services to independent insurance companies as well as to institutional investors, with a mandate to target superior risk-adjusted returns on differentiated assets. The portfolio insurance entities of JAB Insurance will be inaugural clients of 1823 Partners.

Bhalla said, “I am energized to create a platform to support independent insurance companies with tailored investment strategies that back real promises with real assets. By investing long-term insurance company policyholder resources across both public fixed income and bespoke private market opportunities – from real estate to specialty credit and asset-backed lending – we seek to provide predictable, durable cash flows for policyholders with strong risk-adjusted returns. Our asset allocations, anchored in liability-driven investing principles and robust risk management practices, allow us to focus on risk control while maximizing return per unit of risk.”

1823 Partners, with headquarters in Miami and an office in New York, is building a team of investment professionals across real estate, asset-backed finance, credit, and insurance solutions, with the intention to expand into other asset classes and continue growing the team to approximately 60 professionals by year end. These professionals will focus on the direct sourcing and structuring of investments to deliver resilient returns over the long term. Additionally, the firm specializes in providing investment management and risk advisory services to insurance companies.

Joining Bhalla, certain key hires at the time of launch include:

  • James Hamalainen, Partner and Chief Operating Officer; has held leadership roles at American Equity Investment Life Holding Company (AEL), Brighthouse Financial, and Ameriprise Financial;
  • Ashok Vishnubhakta, Partner, Head of Commercial Credit; has held senior investing roles at AEL, Allstate Investments, GE Capital, and Macquarie Capital;
  • Pankil Doshi, Partner, Head of Commercial Real Estate; has held senior real estate investment roles at Cerberus Capital Management, Deutsche Bank, and Matrix, an affiliate of Colony Capital;
  • Chris Bauer, Managing Director, Fixed-Income Trading; has held senior roles in trading and capital markets at Black Diamond Capital Management, Marble Ridge Capital, and Nokota Management;
  • Stuart Perowne, Managing Director, Equity Trading; held a senior markets and banking role at Citigroup, and worked in investment banking at Lazard;
  • Shawn Pierce, Managing Director, Asset-Backed Finance; has held senior investing roles at AEL, Columbia Threadneedle Investments, UniCredit, and Capital One; and
  • Steven Zhou, Managing Director, Hedging and Derivative Strategies; has held senior investing roles at Lord Abbett, Deutsche Asset Management, and J.P. Morgan.


Bhalla concluded, “We get to see remarkable, off-market investment opportunities that come directly to us for two primary reasons – first, the quality of our clients’ insurance capital and second, the high caliber investment talent that we already have and continue to attract. As a long-term investor with a laser focus on attractive asset sectors, we are building a unified team and vibrant culture with the mantra: ‘One Team, One Dream.’ We take enormous pride in bringing together main street insurance policyholder resources with main street borrowers like consumers and commercial businesses for credit, asset backed, and real asset financing.”

About 1823 Partners

1823 Partners is a registered investment adviser conducting business as a differentiated asset management firm focused on long-term, insurance-first investment strategies. The firm supports independent insurance companies with tailored investment strategies that back real promises with real assets. 1823 Partners manages a growing portfolio of private market investments with the objective of generating compelling returns for insurance companies and their policyholders as well as other long-term oriented institutional investors. The firm is headquartered in Miami and has an office in New York. For more information, please visit: www.1823.partners.

Media Contact
Jared Levy
Jared.Levy@1823.partners