L+M raising $500M private equity fund for “workforce housing” development

It’s the company’s first multi-investor development fund

From left: Renderings of L+M's Two Bridges site, Ron Moelis, and the Wall Street bull (Credit: Handel Architects, L+M Development Partners, and Wikipedia)
From left: Renderings of L+M's Two Bridges site, Ron Moelis, and the Wall Street bull (Credit: Handel Architects, L+M Development Partners, and Wikipedia)

Ron Moelis’ L+M Development Partners has been quietly raising $500 million in private equity for an affordable housing development fund during the past year, The Real Deal has learned.

The “workforce housing fund” is the first such affordable development fund L+M has raised from multiple investors. Workforce housing is typically defined as homes that are more affordable than those often found near the potential residents’ workplaces.

In the past, L+M has partnered with CitiBank for housing preservation funds, but according to a source familiar with plans, the new fund pools money from banks as well as from small family office investors.

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The company declined to comment. Park Hill Group, the company listed as the fund’s broker in SEC filings, did not respond to a request for comment.

L+M, which has developed and owned thousands of affordable and market rate rental apartments in New York City, is most recently caught in a battle between City Council and City Hall over 2,700 units in residential development in the Two Bridges neighborhood of Manhattan. Last week, the Council sued the Department of City Planning for greenlighting three towers there, including one planned by by L+M, alleging DCP usurped the Council’s authority over certain land-use issues.