Dealflow | February 2, 2023

Jonathan Rose Companies eyes $750 million for its sixth affordable housing fund

Amy Cortese
ImpactAlpha Editor

Amy Cortese

ImpactAlpha, Feb. 2 – The New York-based real estate firm has been a pioneer in creating and preserving green affordable housing for more than three decades. The company works with social service providers to embed educational, workforce development and health services in what it calls “communities of opportunity.”

Preservation Fund VI is targeting between $500 million and $750 million to address the chronic shortage of affordable housing in the U.S.

“There is not a single county in America where a parent with a child working a full time minimum wage job can afford to rent an apartment,” Jonathan Rose told ImpactAlpha. “Our affordable housing Preservation Funds partner with investors who want not only to help preserve the too-small supply of existing affordable housing, but also to grow it.”

Track record

The latest fund launch follows a $525 million fund raised from investors including the Ford Foundation and the Sorenson Impact Foundation in October 2020, during the depths of the Covid crisis.

Investments from that fund include the $30 million acquisition of the Pasatiempo apartment complex in Fremont, Calif., which extended for another 20 years rent controls that were set to expire. Another notable development is Sendero Verde, a large-scale “passive” mixed use development in East Harlem that will include more than 660 affordable rental units when completed next year.

Rose Cos. has raised just shy of $1 billion to date, building a portfolio of 19,000 apartment homes in 15 states and Washington DC.

New models

As more investors gravitate toward the social mission – and steady returns – of affordable housing, Rose, the firm’s namesake founder, is looking for new ways to add value. His current obsessions: inter-generational living, collective ownership, and community commons.