Former NYC Deputy Mayor Raises Fund To Back Affordable Housing Developers
Former New York City Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development Alicia Glen’s real estate firm has launched a new fund aimed at providing financing to affordable housing developers, kicking off with $20M in seed capital from Trinity Church Wall Street.
MSquared's Affordable NYC Fund will provide mission-driven and nonprofit developers with “flexible” and “cost-effective” capital, according to a release announcing the fund.
“New York City desperately needs more affordable housing,” Glen, the founder and managing partner of MSquared, said in a statement. “To do that, we need more capital and more creative solutions to address this urgent problem. It’s really exciting to be working with Trinity to fill a need in the affordable housing financing landscape.”
The fund will offer both debt and equity and will provide pre-development, bridge, acquisition and construction financing. Although initially focused on New York, MSquared hopes to expand the model across the country.
Glen served in Bill de Blasio’s administration but stepped down from her deputy mayor position in 2019. She formed MSquared in 2020 to focus on development outside New York, she told Bisnow at the time.
Last year, MSquared raised a $108M fund from Citigroup, her former employer Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo to fund workforce housing. The company is investing in a development in Inwood neighborhood that will include 700 units of mixed-income housing and a supermarket. It is also working on a 335-unit apartment block in the Crestview neighborhood in Austin, Texas.
