Spotlight: CNL Financial Group and Its Middle-Market Private Equity Platform

The Orlando sponsor that built its record in non-traded REITs now offers a single product, a non-traded LLC that takes controlling stakes in private middle-market companies with Levine Leichtman Capital Partners as sub-manager.

October 30, 2026

CNL Financial Group is an Orlando-based private investment management firm whose current offering is CNL Strategic Capital, a publicly registered, non-traded limited liability company that buys controlling equity stakes, paired with loan positions, in privately owned middle-market businesses. The company is externally managed by a CNL affiliate and by Levine Leichtman Strategic Capital, an affiliate of middle-market private equity firm Levine Leichtman Capital Partners, which acts as sub-manager.

Founder James M. Seneff, Jr. started the business in 1973 with a $5,000 loan from his father, buying downtown Orlando real estate for less than $3 a square foot, according to the firm. Seneff remains executive chairman. CNL reports that it and its affiliates have formed or acquired companies with more than $37 billion in assets and have sponsored 127 public and private programs, as of June 30, 2026. Its broker-dealer, CNL Securities, has raised more than $19 billion through public and private offerings since 1982, the firm says.

From Healthcare REITs to Private Companies

Much of that record was built in real estate. CNL Healthcare Properties, a non-traded REIT launched in 2011, named a special committee of independent directors in June 2018 to evaluate liquidity options for shareholders. At the time it held 72 seniors housing communities, 53 medical office buildings, 12 post-acute care facilities and five acute-care assets across 34 states. The process concluded on March 11, 2026, when Sonida Senior Living completed its cash-and-stock merger with the REIT, valued at approximately $1.8 billion.

CNL alumni have gone on to run sponsors of their own. Among them is Robert A. Bourne, who co-founded Bourne Financial Group in 2014 after more than four decades at CNL; the firm now sponsors private-pay seniors housing funds.

Two of CNL's senior executives came up through its partnered products. Chief Executive Chirag J. Bhavsar, who also runs CNL Strategic Capital, was previously chief operating officer and chief financial officer of Corporate Capital Trust, a CNL-sponsored business development company that later listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Senior Managing Director Paul W. Drury, who handles CNL Strategic Capital's day-to-day operations, spent 16 years at Levine Leichtman, where he helped originate several of the investments CNL Strategic Capital now holds.

How CNL Strategic Capital Is Structured

CNL Strategic Capital is regulated as a direct participation program and taxed as a partnership, so investors receive one consolidated Schedule K-1, which the company makes best efforts to deliver by mid-March. It is not a fund of funds. The company takes controlling interests directly in companies that typically have annual revenues between $15 million and $250 million, and says it does not target startups, turnarounds or distressed businesses. Management teams of acquired companies invest alongside it, and the firm cites owners looking to retire and business units spun off from larger companies as common sellers.

Net asset value is published monthly. The audit committee reviews valuations and makes recommendations to the board each month, with an independent valuation firm retained for assets without readily available market prices. The minimum investment is $5,000, subscriptions close through a monthly escrow sweep, and a quarterly share repurchase program operates at NAV, subject to limits. Classes A, T, D and I are offered in the public offering of up to $1.1 billion, alongside Classes FA, S, Q and R. The board intends to consider liquidity event options on or before Nov. 1, 2027, a date the company notes can vary.

Portfolio and Recent Activity

As of June 30, 2026, CNL Strategic Capital held equity and debt investments in 18 portfolio companies and approximately $1.6 billion in total assets, up from approximately $1.5 billion at the end of 2025. Since beginning operations in February 2018, it has raised approximately $1.4 billion. The company reports annualized total returns based on NAV since inception through June 30, 2026, ranging from 9.0% for Class T shares to 12.0% for Class S shares, and states that these figures are calculated before sales loads, assume reinvested distributions and are not actual shareholder returns.

In July 2025 the company closed its 17th portfolio company, International Franchise Professionals Group, with a total investment of approximately $113.5 million. IFPG, founded in 2012 in Parlin, New Jersey, is a membership network serving more than 1,300 franchise professionals, along with the franchisors and vendors who work with them. On October 2, 2026, CNL Strategic Capital exited its equity stake in litigation consulting firm Resolution Economics for net cash proceeds of approximately $29.2 million. The company had first invested in January 2020, and its note position was repaid in the same recapitalization.