Plymouth Meeting, Pa.-based Urdang, the real estate investment subsidiary for BNY Mellon Asset Management, created a new real estate debt strategy group by hiring eight team members from Capmark Investments. Capmark Investments named Urdang a non-discretionary sub-advisor for its Capmark Structured Real Estate Partners and Capmark VII-CRE units. These units were formed in 2006 and were originally capitalized with $1.1bn and $1bn, respectively, in institutional investor commitments, BNY Mellon Asset Management said. “The formation of a new real estate debt strategy group within Urdang complements our focus on private-market and publicly-listed equity investments in real estate,” said E. Todd Briddell, chief investment officer and managing director of Urdang Capital Management. “In addition to the opportunity to service Capmark Investments, we believe that the persistence of tough credit conditions within real estate capital markets makes now the ideal time to strengthen and grow our real estate investment business. We see attractive opportunities for Urdang’s clients to purchase and originate commercial mortgages and structured credit instruments,” he added. BNY Mellon is the corporate brand of financial services company Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (BNY). Write to Austin Kilgore.