BRIDGE Housing, a leading nonprofit affordable housing developer and owner on the West Coast, has announced its first private equity fund.
BRIDGE Housing Impact Fund I is on course to raise $350 million, enabling about $1 billion in investment potential to acquire, preserve, and create affordable and workforce housing in major metropolitan areas in California, Oregon, and Washington.
KeyBank and BMO will each invest $25 million to anchor one of the largest equity funds to be sponsored and managed by a nonprofit affordable housing provider. PGIM Real Estate is also a launch investor, and BRIDGE expects to announce additional stakeholders in the coming months, according to officials.
“We are innovating every day to extend our reach and capacity to build, acquire, and redevelop affordable housing communities on the West Coast,” said Ken Lombard, BRIDGE Housing president and CEO. “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.”
The new fund will help the nonprofit maintain strong momentum after achieving 11.5% portfolio growth in 2024. BRIDGE Housing has more than 14,500 units and over $4 billion in total assets, and acquisitions are an increasingly important strategy for expansion, accounting for half of the nonprofit’s planned addition of 5,100 affordable units between 2024 and 2027.
BRIDGE Housing anticipates acquiring about 20 properties, with an estimated total of 3,500 units, during the three-year investment period. It supplements the organization’s robust new construction and redevelopment activity from Seattle to San Diego. The affordable housing nonprofit has more than 10,000 units in its development and acquisition pipelines.
Over the past year, BRIDGE Housing has completed four acquisitions to preserve more than 600 units with affordability covenants that were poised to expire and create 257 additional affordable homes by converting market-rate units.