Liberty Street Advisors is going through a big reset thanks to a deal involving its biggest subadvisor and half of its staff.

As previously reported, last month New York-based Brookfield Asset Management's public securities group unveiled a deal to buy Houston-based Center Coast Capital Holdings, as well parts of New York-based Liberty Street and parts of Liberty Street affiliates HRC Fund Associates and HRC Portfolio Solutions. The deal also involves Liberty Street's flagship mutual fund, the $2.8-billion Center Coast MLP Focus Fund, moving to Brookfield. Liberty Street will have about $1.5 billion in AUM after the deal, including about $500 million in its four other mutual funds.

"We're innovators. We have other innovative products that we'll be out there selling," Victor Fontana, president of Liberty Street and HRC, tells MFWire. "We have a system so we're able to rebuild the sales force with people who would be starting fresh."

"First and foremost, we are marketers of products," with a particular focus on the wirehouses, Fontana adds.

Liberty Street started back in 2003 in the separately managed account space, and it launched its first mutual fund in 2007. About 15 of the 30 people at HRC and Liberty Street will move over to Brookfield as part of the deal, which is expected to close in Q1 2018. The remaining Liberty Street and HRC team (Liberty Street advises a family of subadvised mutual funds, while HRC is the third-party marketing and operations shop for Liberty Street) will "reinvest in the business to build it out again," Fontana says.

"This is the first time that we've had something like this happen," Fontana says, adding that the Center Coast-Brookfield-Liberty Street-HRC deal is "just a very good fit all around."

"We're staying independent," Fontana adds. 

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