Georgia's High-Profile Senate Races Drawing Big-Name CRE Donors

Two major commercial real estate players are creating a public multifamily real estate investment trust via a $100M IPO, the industry's first to focus on affordable and workforce housing, its founders say. 

Dubbed Aspire Real Estate Investors, the REIT is controlled by Irvine, California-based Avanath Capital and San Francisco-based MacFarlane Partners, both among the largest Black-owned real estate companies in the country. 

Representatives for both Avanath Capital and MacFarlane Partners declined to comment, citing the “quiet period” that began after filing an IPO on Oct. 2. But documents submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission offer a look at plans for the first wave of investments Aspire would make, including spending $582.4M on nine initial multifamily properties across the country, six of which are located in opportunity zones.

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OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA — A newly formed community development corporation is looking to help stem the tide of displacement in East Oakland, five or so blocks at a time.

Across a 50-by-50-block area in East Oakland, Black Cultural Zone, a development entity started in the last year, looks to develop about 10 cultural and commercial hubs meant to create ownership and a secure place for the city's dwindling Black population, Black Cultural Zone CEO Carolyn Johnson said. 

Black Cultural Zone is an outgrowth of the longer-standing East Oakland Black Cultural Zone Collaborative, a partnership of over 20 nonprofits. Johnson said last year it decided it needed to form a new entity to carry out community and commercial development, to help move residents from "a consumer class to an owner class."

“We have to own the real estate to have real power," she said. "Otherwise, we’re at the whims of the marketplace."

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In Case You Missed It...

This series delves into the myriad ways people enter the commercial real estate industry and what contributes to their success.

Brian Crowell, partner and director of multifamily development at The Hudgins Cos., has been around the world of commercial real estate since he was only 10 years old.

The executive remembers his father exposing him to the industry in his formative years, assigning him various commercial real estate-related tasks in Crowell's childhood backyard. Now, a father himself, Crowell, 36, is grateful he received top-quality preparation and mentorship before even entering high school. 

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