John Sauter

JOHN SAUTER

Managing Partner, John Sauter, is focused on investments, capital raising, and strategy. He brings over 30 years of private equity and real estate experience to Grass River.

John was the Founder and President of Tower 14 Capital, L.P., a Los Angeles based investment firm focused on opportunistic real estate investment. In August of 2019, Tower 14 made a $60MM commitment to acquire an interest in the real assets and operating platform of Middle Street Partners, a highly regarded apartment operator based in Charleston, S.C.

Prior to starting Tower 14, John worked at Iconiq Capital where he took a leading role in starting ICONIQ’s real estate division and was a founding member of the Iron Point ICONIQ data center fund series, IPI Data Center Partners, L.P.

Before Iconiq, John was a Senior Managing Director and Principal at CBRE Global Investors. At CBRE John completed $2.0B of investment transactions and was an integral part of raising nearly $2.5B of equity for its funds and separate accounts.

John was a partner in MSD Real Estate Investments, L.P. an affiliate of MSD Capital L.P., the family…

office for Michael John was a partner in MSD Real Estate Investments, L.P. an affiliate of MSD Capital L.P., the family office for Michael Dell for eight years before CBRE. During John’s tenure at MSD, MSD Real Estate Investments, L.P. completed 22 separate public and private transactions involving properties, debt, and stock valued at over $5 billion and nearly $1 billion of equity. 

Prior to MSD, John was a Vice President of Acquisitions at Starwood Capital and was President of Troon Golf, a joint venture between Starwood and Goldman Sachs. Mr. Sauter worked on land, hospitality, and private equity related transactions valued in excess of $300MM for Starwood Opportunity Funds II, IV and V and its Mezzanine Investors, L.P. In addition, in his role at Troon, he helped the firm to grow EBITDA nearly 20 fold and took primary responsibility for the opening of the company’s offices and operations in Japan, the UK, and Australia. 

Mr. Sauter is also a senior advisor to 3650 REIT, a strategic partner of Grass River. John received a B.A. in political science from Duke University and an M.B.A. from The Anderson Graduate School of Management at The University of California, Los Angeles.