Bridge Housing Launches Affordable Housing Fund With $1B Goal

A nonprofit developer has initiated a new investment fund that aims to deploy $1 billion into acquiring, developing and preserving West Coast affordable housing. 

San Francisco-based Bridge Housing launched Bridge Housing Impact Fund I, the firm’s private equity fund, to invest in thousands of affordable and workforce housing units in major metros throughout California, Oregon and Washington. The fund, which will avoid using public subsidies, is currently on course to raise $350 million, including new $25 million commitments from both Keybank and BMO, which Bridge claims will enable $1 billion investment potential. PGIM, Prudential Financial’s investment management arm, is also a launch investor. 

“Our impact fund will enable us to move quickly on acquisitions not only to protect long-term affordability but also to add new affordable and workforce housing by converting market-rate units into homes for low- and middle-income earners, driving greater and faster impact along with steady returns for investors,” Ken Lombard, Bridge Housing’s president and CEO, said in a statement. 

Bridge expects the fund to acquire 20 properties, with an estimated 3,500 units, over the next three years via three investment strategies: acquiring and preserving affordable housing where income restrictions are set to expire; acquiring market-rate properties and converting them into income-restricted affordable communities; and acquiring naturally occurring affordable and workforce housing. More than 50,000 affordable units along the West Coast are set to lose their income restrictions over the next five years, according to Bridge. 

“The impact fund is the latest milestone since Bridge Housing was founded four decades ago with the bold vision to provide quality affordable housing on a large scale,” Ken Novack, chair of Bridge’s board of directors. “It’s an opportunity for investors to join forces to make a positive impact in challenging West Coast metro areas where we have operated and long been successful.”

Bridge is one of the largest nonprofit owners of affordable housing in the country, with a current portfolio of 14,500 units and a total asset value of about $4 billion. Traditionally focused on development, the firm more recently is aggressively acquiring properties rather than building them. Indeed, it intends to buy half of the 5,100 units that it plans to add to its portfolio between 2024 and 2027, according to the company.

That includes Vue Kirkland apartments, a 200-unit complex in Kirkland, Wash., for which it paid $55.2 million in May. Bridge in December also acquired a two-property portfolio — in Berkeley, Calif., and Gresham, Ore. — for an undisclosed sum. 

Nick Trombola can be reached at ntrombola@commercialobserver.com.