Freddie Honors Workforce Housing Developer

WASHINGTON – Previously this thirty day period, Freddie Mac selected Comunidad Associates as the inaugural Impression Sponsor of the Yr for 2021. The newly designed award acknowledges Freddie Mac multifamily borrowers that are performing to maintain or create cost-effective rental housing with distinctive initiatives to advance tenants’ pursuits.

Founded in 2007 by Antonio Marquez, Comunidad is a minority- and gals-owned serious estate expense agency specializing in workforce and very affordable housing communities in culturally varied neighborhoods. Because its inception, the Austin, Texas-primarily based company has acquired extra than 13,000 apartment units totaling roughly $2 billion.

Marquez, who serves as principal and running director, is the son of Mexican immigrants who moved to the U.S. from abject poverty. His father was a farm employee who commenced his personal little business enterprise importing Hispanic grocery goods and providing them to mother-and-pop shops. (The approach of “importing” associated driving a van to Mexico and stocking up on well known foods models to resell in the United States).

For many a long time, Marquez lived in apartment complexes identical to those people in which Comunidad invests – at the very least as significantly as the people they housed. Throughout that time, he noticed lots of of the exact structural desire aspects in workforce housing that his father noticed in the grocery market.

By launching Comunidad, Marquez proved the apple doesn’t drop much from the tree. The financial investment agency is designed on identical ideas that he learned from his mom and dad, notably a focus on influence investing and DEI (range, equality, and inclusion).

These days, Comunidad’s portfolio consists of 6,000 units distribute throughout 12 Sunbelt marketplaces with a assets less than administration (AUM) of much more than $1 billion. Under Marquez’s management as principal and controlling companion, the vertically integrated company has grown to 130 staff who handle everything from home administration to construction.

Freddie Mac honored Comunidad with the Impact Sponsor of the 12 months award after the corporation secured a $300 million funding commitment by means of Bellwether Business and Freddie Mac to support the creation or preservation of affordable workforce housing all over the United States.

The distinctive initiative was backed by Freddie Mac’s Tenant Progression Dedication, which provides aggressive financing to operators who concur to sustain or increase affordability and give supportive resident solutions for the length of the bank loan purchased by Freddie Mac.

With Bellwether and Freddie Mac’s funding motivation, Comunidad obtained two homes: Oaks at Holcomb Bridge, a 304-unit yard-design and style apartment complicated in suburban Atlanta, and Metro 7000, a 206-device garden-design condominium in Fort Value, Texas.

The business has instituted self-imposed affordability limitations for both of those qualities and will spend far more than $2.4 million in cash advancements. It will also present social plans, which includes telehealth, concierge source referral, resident council conferences, youth education and learning products and services, wellness and wellness education and learning, and financial progression schooling/alternatives.

We spoke to Marquez about Comunidad’s system and plans for the long run.

This Q&A has been edited for size, style and clarity.

WMRE: What is Comunidad’s investment approach?

Antonio Marquez: We’re completely focused on workforce and very affordable housing with an affect tactic. We are attempting to offer differentiated living environments in Sunbelt marketplaces, these types of as Albuquerque, Atlanta, Austin, Dallas-Fort Well worth and Houston.

We are hugely centered on resident retention and strong money flows. We have a value-incorporate method, but our definition of worth-add differs from other buyers. We’re not investing $30,000 a doorway to get hire premiums. Our definition of price-insert signifies featuring a wonderful benefit to our residents by giving a cleanse, safe, and cozy living surroundings with terrific features and social programs.

WMRE: What sparked the strategy for Comunidad?

Antonio Marquez: It was two issues: facts (economic and demographic) and the realization that there wasn’t something else like it in the market place.

Just by on the lookout at demographic information, I could see the place population development was transpiring – Hispanics are one of the speediest escalating demographics. And when you glance at the house loan market, there is a barrier to homeownership for minority communities. Hispanics, in specific, have a propensity to rent because there is no other solution for them.

When we noticed that, we recognized that we could provide a better residing encounter and much better worth to individuals residents. In accomplishing so, there is a fantastic opportunity for investors.

WMRE: What was Comunidad’s original vision? How has it advanced because it 1st released?

Antonio Marquez: We aspire to be the most impactful real estate investment decision business. To us, impactful usually means that we want to add the ideal value for all stakeholders in the benefit chain. It’s not neglecting just one stakeholder over one more. It’s as very simple as that. We’re not hoping to be the most important. We’re not hoping to get accolades. We’re not seeking to generate the most income, though of training course, we emphasis on profitability. But we’re attempting to do that responsibly. We think that when you solution it that way, it’s heading to deliver greater benefits over time than a myopically centered, revenue-driven, quarter-about-quarter approach, which is where by the market has been historically and continues to be.

WMRE: How does Comunidad raise equity and attract new investors?

Antonio Marquez: There is not one particular route. When we started off in 2007, it was very tricky sledding. We just went out and started creating equity interactions any way we could – mostly by means of conferences and chilly phone calls. I would appear at web-sites for companies that seemed like they were doing actual estate equity, and I’d cold connect with them. It was tricky for the reason that I did not have a observe document, and even though I experienced a novel technique, it was not the sexiest. People weren’t exactly clamoring to get into the house.

Now that we’ve been able to verify our principle, buyers are coming to us. Other investors and RIAs (registered expense advisors) are referring their networks to us. We’re in a lucky situation of owning excellent LPs that are excellent match for what we’re undertaking.

WMRE: Talking of traders, what form of buyers does Comunidad concentrate on? Do you anticipate your trader foundation will change in the in close proximity to foreseeable future?

Antonio Marquez: When we started off, due to the fact we didn’t have much of a track history, we had experienced to be ground breaking and adapt to the sector. Our initially acquisitions were syndications exactly where we lifted funds from accredited particular person buyers by direct relationships.

As we grew and needed more substantial fairness commitments, we moved into joint ventures with family members places of work and RIAs for a single-off transactions. We had to build up our keep track of document to go the institutional route, but inevitably, we captivated pensions, endowments, and foundations.

WMRE: 1 of Comunidad’s institutional associates is Nuveen. How did that partnership appear about?

Antonio Marquez: We have been launched to Nuveen by way of yet another institutional LP that was not very as far together in their affect investing as Nuveen, which shares our belief that range in the administration staff drives value.

More than a couple of several years, we crafted a romance with Nuveen. We did some assets excursions alongside one another and discovered a excellent off-market place option in Atlanta termed Village at the Creek. It’s a 603-unit cost-effective and workforce housing community found in a submarket dubbed “the most numerous sq. mile in America.” It’s a melting pot of immigrants, migrants and refugees, and our investment decision demonstrates our humanity and our aid of individuals through housing.

Village at the Creek is Comunidad’s fifth acquisition in the Atlanta industry. We now have shut to 1,600 units there.

WMRE: Comunidad recently launched its to start with fund. Can you tell us more about it?

Antonio Marquez: It’s a discretionary, commingled institutional fund. All traders are domestic. Institutional and big multi-billion family members workplaces account for 86% of the traders. The remainder are substantial-net really worth traders and RIAs.

Given how competitive the acquisition marketplace is nowadays, discretion is critical. You don’t want to have to count on a third social gathering to make investment decisions. We realized that we had to be a lot more agile and be in a position to act immediately with our interior expense committee. To do that, we desired to have a fund.

When we have been 1st commencing out, it created all the feeling of the earth to increase fairness for particular person bargains. But now that we’re building scale, we’re hoping to be much more efficient in the way we elevate equity, and it would make sense to do it through one vehicle.

Plus, in the earlier when bargains had been oversubscribed, buyers have been dissatisfied. With the fund, there is enough place for every person to participate.

WMRE: What is Comunidad’s ordinary maintain period of time?

Antonio Marquez: 5 to 7 yrs. We structured the fund so we can recapitalize specials for a for a longer time keep, which ties into our effects technique. When qualities trade palms, it makes displacement, and our aim is to retain inhabitants in their residences for as long as they want to dwell there.

WMRE: What is the array of returns that you hope on Comunidad investments?

Antonio Marquez: Traditionally, IRRs (inner rate of return) have ranged from mid-to-large 20s. Going forward, I believe we’ll see additional compressed returns, someplace in the mid-teenagers.

WMRE: What role does technological know-how play at Comunidad?

Antonio Marquez: Proptech performs a massive position. Mainly because of our effect strategy, and since workforce housing is so specialized, we experienced to build our personal system. We just couldn’t uncover one particular that could give us the information and facts we will need.

Very first, we built a information lake, and then we made a platform that leverages data to notify the tale of every neighborhood. Via the platform, we have genuine-time standing of our houses that can be explored through a number of dashboards with 120 distinct metrics/KPIs.

We also built the 1st of its sort ESG details framework for multifamily that maps to United Nations Sustainable Progress Objectives (SDGs), between many others. We’re tackling 12 of the 17 SDGs that are precisely tailor-made to the requirements of workforce housing residents and tackle impact results regarding fairness/financial empowerment, wellbeing and wellness, education, food stuff protection and housing stability/affordability.

Our ESG knowledge analytics platform highlights 52 ESG KPIs that are weighted and section of an effects scorecard to build goal benchmarking. The system demonstrates our ESG affect and how it translates into greater financial efficiency.

WMRE: Talking of ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance), it is a main benefit for Comunidad. Can you tell us additional about how it influences your strategic choices?

Antonio Marquez: Strategically, for us as an business, the S is the most crucial. It is the cheapest hanging fruit, nonetheless the toughest to execute, and the most misunderstood. We’re performing to generate a new council to build benchmarks all around this. We’re genuinely making an attempt to legitimize this on an industry amount. From a values perspective, the G is the most essential. It’s the foundation for DEI, honest and equal pay back, and demonstrates to our workforce how a great deal we value them. The E is in all probability the most experienced and simplest to execute. Our info analytics will help us have an understanding of where by the waste is and will help us minimize it.

WMRE: What is your approach for Comunidad seeking forward?

Antonio Marquez: We will go on to concentrate on effect investing as a result of workforce housing and inexpensive housing. We also be expecting to start added cash.

WMRE: What differentiates Comunidad from other investment corporations?

Antonio Marquez: There are not a whole lot of minority fund professionals, and even less that are Latino – which is a incredibly simple differentiator.

A different differentiator is that I individually know these forms of communities and citizens. When you stay in one of these communities like I did, you see the issues and the prospects. It is a specific detail when you can marry your background and know-how and eventually use it by means of a business enterprise that actually can make an effects.

Also, we differentiate ourselves by viewing our people as the genuine belongings. We invest in them as a result of the integration of social systems this kind of as ESL classes, occupation fairs, overall health and wellness plans and immediately after-college packages. The plans are curated to in good shape the requires of a unique group. We imagine this financial investment can help our citizens prosper by creating them much more resilient and providing the chance to create wealth.

Another differentiator is at the assets degree – we have a proprietary screening model for our residents. Lots of citizens at our communities don’t have credit score scores – it is a really money-centered resident base. There’s an aversion to fiscal institutions simply because in their native nations around the world – Mexico, for instance – economic institutions have unsuccessful so lots of occasions and currency exchanges have been so risky.

In our business, there is a preconceived notion that people with no a credit score are riskier than some others. But we do not feel that is essentially the circumstance. Just mainly because they never have a credit rating rating does not suggest they are not creditworthy.

At Comunidad, we go the added mile to know who our residents are, exactly where they function, where by they’ve lived and what they do in their cost-free time. When we get that image, we have a better gauge of that human being. We have uncovered anecdotally that these citizens are so loyal because we gave them a shot, and they are decrease delinquency threat simply because they’re not going to screw up their possibility to reside in a awesome local community. They are living in the property for a extended time period of time, and they are even a lot more included in the community than other residents.

We’ve been equipped to demonstrate, at the very least anecdotally, that inhabitants with out a credit score are not riskier. The reverse is genuine – they’re truly really large-good quality residents.

WMRE: What is the most significant achievements that the company has expert? What is the largest failure?

Antonio Marquez: The largest good results is our staff. I am so proud of them and their determination and alignment to the organization.

As for failures, there are so quite a few. I consider about it this way: if you really do not have any failures, you are both lying to oneself or you’re not attempting tricky plenty of.

Just one of our largest failures was that we did not make investments as a lot as we should have in infrastructure early on. We must have invested far more in folks, technological innovation, devices and processes in those early decades. Luckily, all people elements are in position now.

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