Parkway Raises $25M For Atlanta Opportunity Zone Buy

Parkway Property Investments' purchase and planned renovation of 100 Edgewood has come with $25M from crowdfunded opportunity zone investors.

Parkway closed on the 18-story Downtown Atlanta tower formerly used by the United Way for $17.65M. In turn, Parkway expects to spend an additional $45M to renovate the 306K SF office building.

As previously reported by Bisnow, the Florida-based real estate investment firm tapped CrowdStreet to raise capital from investors since the building lies within one of Georgia's 260 census tracts deemed opportunity zones as a result of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. In the program, investors are allowed to defer or avoid taxes on their capital gains if they buy and transform properties or businesses in the zones and hold onto those investments for at least seven years.

For CrowdStreet, 100 Edgewood became the fastest capital raise ever for the platform: $1M raised every seven minutes.

“The speed in which CrowdStreet's investors committed to the funding target was pretty amazing as we hit the goal of over $25M in offers in just a few hours,” Parkway CEO James Heistand said in a release. “The 100 Edgewood deal is institutional quality, so we knew it would be attractive to an institutional investor. At the same time, we thought it would be a great opportunity to try online syndication.”

This is Parkway's first foray into opportunity zone development. But the firm had been eyeing 100 Edgewood for some time because of the redevelopment boom executives see taking place in Downtown Atlanta, Parkway Chief Investment Officer Jason Bates previously told Bisnow.