"This billion-dollar [real estate] fund, . . . I am told, is the largest ever raised in Pennsylvania," Lubert said.
Had that come from Musser, 76, who in his heyday was loud and colorful on behalf of his ventures, it might have sounded like a boast. Lubert, 53, paints himself as a gray, back-office guy and spoke in a whisper.
Still, the relative anonymity must rankle, for Lubert added: "We have gone from zero to $3 billion in seven years, but very few people know it."
The private equity group that comes closest in the region, TL Ventures, of Wayne, manages $1.4 billion, though TL is not into real estate.
TL head Robert E. Keith Jr. welcomes Lubert's fund-raising as a sign of economic health. "We are like banks," Keith, a former banker, said of venture funds. Some approve an investment that others might turn down, but in the end a region with a lot of investors breeds a lot of entrepreneurs, he said.
Some venture-capital purists would not mingle real estate and technology assets in ranking funds. Excluding real estate investments, Independence Capital would be about half TL's size.
Keith brushes aside the quibble: "[Lubert] has raised that amount of money in a shorter period of time than we have."
Musser calls Lubert "brilliant" and ranks him alongside Comcast Corp. founder Ralph J. Roberts and the late and legendary builder Willard G. Rouse 3d.
The year just ended was notable in other ways for the house that Lubert is building:
The group of real estate and technology funds run out of the ornate Belgravia Building on Chestnut Street - Lubert-Adler Real Estate Funds, LLR Partners Inc., LEM Real Estate Mezzanine and Quaker BioVentures - acquired an umbrella name: Independence Capital Partners.
