Kushner-Backed Cadre Launches $400M Real Estate Fund
Real estate investment platform Cadre has launched Cadre Direct Access Fund, a $400M real estate investment fund aimed largely at individual investors and advisers.
At least 10% of Cadre’s portfolio will involve minority-owned local real estate operators, co-founder and CEO Ryan Williams told Forbes, a figure he said he hopes will reach 20%. Black-owned banks will hold between 5% and 10% of Cadre’s cash. The minimum investment in the fund will be $25K, according to the company's Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
“I believe we are entering a period that will potentially be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to invest in attractively priced properties,” Williams told Forbes.
Cadre's stated goal since its beginning has been increasing access to real estate investing. Williams co-founded Cadre in 2015 with Joshua Kushner, brother of former President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as a platform for investors with at least $100K to invest in commercial real estate. Jared Kushner was an initial investor in the company, and while last year he said he was planning to divest from it, he later put those plans on hold.
Over time, Cadre has lowered its minimum for investment and opened up a secondary market to allow investors more liquidity. The new fund is the latest move by Cadre in its "growth-and-offense mode" that Williams, a fintech entrepreneur, touted last fall.
Early in the coronavirus pandemic, the company laid off a quarter of its over 100-employee staff and took other cost-cutting measures. It also focused on the properties that it already held, rather than making new acquisitions.
By September, Williams said that Cadre's multifamily and office assets remained 97% and 94% occupied, respectively, and that the company was once again focused on new acquisitions, especially multifamily and urban industrial real estate.
Also in September, Cadre launched Cadre Cash, which allows members who have already invested in CRE on the Cadre platform to establish a savings account. The company guarantees a 3% return on those accounts.
