Red Stone Partners Launches $250M Fund to Purchase MF Affordable Housing Bonds

New York–Red Stone Partners, a national real estate finance company catering to the affordable multifamily housing market and based in New York, has just established a new $250 million investment fund for the acquisition of fixed rate tax-exempt multifamily housing bonds.

“The target of the fund is whoever was active in the market and may have these bonds on their balance sheets, and new bonds for developers to acquire and rehabilitate multifamily housing,” James R. Gillespie, managing director with Red Stone, tells MHN.

Additionally, further enhancing the $250 million fund, Red Stone has closed three deals totaling $50 million via the company’s direct bond purchase structure. “In two of the deals, the purchases were made in the secondary market, they were existing bonds, and the other deal involved new bonds to finance the acquisition of a project.”

Indeed, along with the credit crunch came investors’ retreat on the debt and equity side, and the affordable housing market did not escape the recoil. However, change is in the air. “Across the board, I’m optimistic,” Gillespie says. “Investors and lenders are more mindful of credit risk. They’re very focused on the fundamentals of the market and the quality of the borrower, and affordable multifamily housing is a pretty stable asset class.”