Barclays Capital, in a joint venture with Goff Capital, acquired Crescent Real Estate Equities Limited Partnership, or Crescent, from Morgan Stanley Real Estate Funding II. Crescent owns and manages over 17m square feet of office space and investments in resort developments and luxury hotels. Barclays Capital is the investment banking division of Barclays Bank PLC (BCS), and Goff Capital Partners is a private investment firm with more than $5bn in assets. The firm, re-branded as Crescent Real Estate Holdings, appointed John Goff as CEO, marking his return to the firm from when he formerly ran it as vice chairman and CEO until it was sold to Morgan Stanley (MS) in 2007. “Given his extensive knowledge of the Crescent portfolio, John is well suited to manage the company going forward,” said Haejin Baek, managing director and head of commercial real estate capital markets at Barclays Capital. “The quality of Crescent’s portfolio is strong and I look forward to partnering with the Crescent and Barclays Capital teams to manage the company through the current cycle and ensure that we are well positioned for the market recovery,” Goff said. Write to Jon Prior.