EJF Capital to Launch Second Opportunity Zone Investment Fund
EJF Capital LLC, an alternative asset management firm, has announced that it will launch a second opportunity zone fund.
EJF Capital LLC, an alternative asset management firm, has announced that it will launch a second opportunity zone fund, EJF OpZone Fund II LP, on April 15th. The fund will focus primarily on multifamily and industrial development opportunities in disadvantaged areas.
EJF’s inaugural fund, EJF OpZone Fund I LP, launched in August 2018 and closed in January 2021 after raising approximately $280 million.
The opportunity zone initiative, part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, allows investors to realize a number of tax benefits including capital gains deferral, tax liability reduction and income tax exemptions, if they make long term investment in lower income census tracts known as “opportunity zones.” There are more than 8,700 qualified opportunity zones across the U.S.
“The investments made in this fund will pay for developments in some of the nation’s lower-income communities, providing jobs, housing and accelerating growth in those areas,” said Asheel Shah, head of real estate development. “Opportunity zone investments across the country are clearly having an impact, pumping in a substantial amount of private capital across the country.”
EJF’s first fund has five projects completed including multifamily apartments in Washington, D.C., Jacksonville, Florida, and Vancouver, Washington; one hotel development in Oakland, California; and two industrial buildings in a multi-phase industrial park in Hardeeville, South Carolina near Savannah, Georgia.
More projects are currently under construction, including a second multifamily apartment project in Jacksonville, a mixed-use multifamily/office project in Vancouver, and two additional buildings at the multi-phase industrial park near Savannah. Lastly, a multifamily development project in Hyattsville, Maryland in the Washington D.C. metro is seeking final approvals to begin construction. In total these projects represent more than $600 million in total estimated project costs with $219 million of equity being invested by EJF’s first opportunity zone fund.
EJF Capital is headquartered outside of Washington, D.C., and as of December 31, 2020, manages approximately $5.9 billion across a group of alternative asset strategies. Since inception, EJF has focused on regulatory event-driven investment themes including its strategy to invest in opportunity zones.
