Housing some of the world’s largest and most well-known firms, everyone regards New York City as the private equity capital of the world. KKR, The Blackstone Group, and Cerberus Capital all call New York home, as well as many newer, emerging firms such as LNK Partners, Elevation Partners, and Aquiline Partners.

But just how crowded is America’s largest city when it comes to doing deals? In filtering info within Private Equity Database, we find there are over 200 firms headquartered in New York City, with nearly 90 residing in the 10022 zip code alone. With so many firms in a small upper east side area, you’d imagine there would be less unique addresses than firms. That’s certainly the case with the 86 firms in the 10022 zip listed at 46 different addresses.

So which building contains the most PE HQs? With eight private equity tenants, that would be 320 Park Avenue (see pic at right). Arsenal Capital, Zephyr Management, Kelso & Company, Gilbert Global Equity, One Equity Partners, EOS Partners, MidOcean Partners, and Welsh Carson Anderson & Stowe all reside under one roof in the Mutual of America Building.

Well, at least according to Google Trends.  Even as we approach the mid-point of mild 2008, and after the significant run-up and fall-off that was private equity in 2007, private equity in general seems to be holding its own in comparison to venture capital and hedge funds.  “Hedge Fund” and “Private Equity” somewhat mirror each other in terms of Google search volume which goes along with the recent trend seeing investment firms such as Cerberus and Fortress transform more into private equity firms from their hedge fund roots.

However, what’s more amazing when comparing the three asset classes is the steady decline in overall interest for “venture capital”.  Having dipped below “private equity” in 2004, venture capital hasn’t regained its Google momentum, despite the popularity of tech and startup focused blogs such as TechCrunch and VentureBeat as well as the continued flow of Web 2.0 ideas.

China’s sovereign wealth fund recently announced the investment of approximately $2.5 billion into mega firm TPG’s latest fund with a target close of $15 to $20 billion. What’s so interesting about this commitment is that it follows China’s well noted direct investment of $3 billion into The Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX) last summer.

China’s Blackstone investment could not have been more poorly timed as BX is off more than 50% since its 2007 IPO. However, despite the Blackstone sting, China is demonstrating the wealth fund is not afraid to re-up in US managed private equity. The larger lesson learned as an outside private equity investor is that the safe way to get your positive returns is to stay the traditional course and be an LP in funds.

Last month we quietly inserted a link in our footer to the newly created Private Equity Glossary. Featuring terms, definitions, notes and more, check back often as we slowly add content specific to private equity.

If you come across any terms you feel are missing or need a makeover, let us know by emailing us at support AT pedatabase.com.