Taurus Investment Holdings has held a final close on its first real estate fund, Taurus US Logistics Fund.

The fund includes $157 million of discretionary capital from a number of Middle Eastern family offices, which are new clients for the firm. Additionally, Taurus and a number of existing high-net-worth investors have committed $100 million in a sidecar vehicle to invest along the fund. In total, the Boston-based real estate investment firm will have total firepower of approximately $750 million for its US logistics platform over the next 18 months. The structure allows both the firm’s new and existing clients to participate in the logistics strategy on a ‘pari passu,’ or equal, basis.

Taurus US Logistics Fund marks the firm’s first discretionary capital raise. Taurus has historically invested in real estate through nearly 200 club deals with a network of approximately 500 European, US and other international high-net-worth investors. The firm closed last week on its latest club deal, the $56 million acquisition of Wellington Parkside, a 190-unit Class apartment complex in Everett, Massachusetts from SMC Management.

The new fund “represents the expansion of our investment platform into the discretionary business, which is bit different from what we’ve done in the last 20 years,” said Peter Merrigan (pictured), chief executive and partner of Taurus. “It’s another leg of the stool.”

“Logistics properties have been one of the most highly performing asset types over the past 20 years for Taurus,” said Merrigan. “The supply and demand fundamentals in this segment of the market continue to be the strongest of any in the commercial real estate industry, and we are grateful to our partners for their continued support.”

The platform will focus on value-added logistics investments in US cities within Taurus’s existing operating footprint. Managing director Lathan Allen, based in the firm’s Atlanta office, and vice president Nick Clark, based in Boston, will lead acquisition efforts for the fund.

Since 2005, Taurus has developed and sold over 4.5 million square feet of Class A logistics properties throughout the Sunbelt region of the US, including Atlanta, Georgia; Orlando, Florida; Norfolk, Virginia; and Nashville, Tennessee. Last year, the firm, in a joint venture with Augustus Investment Holdings, acquired a 15-property, 962,000-square-foot industrial portfolio in Dallas and separately bought Century Center Business Park, a seven-building, 520,000-square-foot light industrial park in Memphis, Tennessee, from GID Investment Advisors for $48.25 million. The portfolio is currently generating an internal rate of return of 31.29 percent and an equity multiple of 1.86 percent, according to the firm.