Merritt Community Capital Closes Fund at $137M

Depot Community Apartments. Rendering by Lowney Architecture

Merritt Community Capital has raised $137 million with its 22nd fund, representing its largest fundraise to date.

Julie Quinn, director of investor relations at Merritt, told Multi-Housing News that Fund XXII opened to investors January 2021. The fund recently closed in December and garnered a total of 12 investors, including four new and eight existing. The nonprofit added that three of the eight existing investors made their largest investment with the nonprofit to date.

Fund 22 will be used to finance 11 communities that will ultimately create 616 affordable units across California. According to Merritt, nine of the 11 projects financed by Fund 22 will be reserved for residents experiencing homelessness, that have special needs or are seniors. Those nine projects will also be new constructions, whereas the two remaining communities will be rehabilitation efforts.

Several of the communities will be located in Los Angeles County, but the projects also span Sonoma, San Luis Obispo, Humboldt, Orange, Solano, Alameda and Santa Clara counties. Merritt also partnered with a mix of both urban and rural developers for its Fund 22 projects.

CREATING PERMANENT SUPPORTIVE HOUSING

In Alameda County, Merritt is working with Allied Housing, the development arm of Adobe Services, to build a 125-unit permanent supportive housing development. Located in Hayward, Calif., the community will offer studio apartments to extremely low- and very low-income households, with nearly half of the units reserved for those experiencing homelessness. The project, Depot Community Apartments, will also have on-site supportive services provided by Adobe Services.

With the closing of Fund 22, Merritt has hit a milestone of $1 billion of affordable housing investment in California since it started in 1989. The nonprofit is already looking ahead and launched its Fund 23 this month with a goal of raising $150 million in equity.

Besides its continuing fund series, Merritt is also planning to launch proprietary funds in the first quarter of 2022 that will be both used for specific deals in San Francisco, Quinn told Multi-Housing News. Many other funds aimed at preserving affordable housing across the country closed in 2021, with a few targeting specific regions, like Merritt’s Fund 22 with California and JBG SMITH’s Washington Housing Initiative Impact Pool for Washington, D.C.