Primestor Closes $215M Fund for Mixed-Income Housing in LA

Culver City-based Primestor Development is getting ready to swing hammers in Los Angeles after raising $215 million to invest in new multifamily projects near public transit, The Real Deal has learned.

Primestor closed its Urban Vision Fund I after bringing in $215 million from investors over the past two years, according to a spokesperson for the company. That includes contributions from the Weingart and SCAN Foundations, plus $25 million from Swiss alternative investor LGT Capital Partners and $100 million from Belay Investment Group, a Los Angeles firm that backs “under the radar” middle-market projects in areas with high housing demand around the country, according to its website.

The spokesperson did not immediately provide the names of any other investors in the fund.

The fund — which originally aimed to raise $300 million — marks a pivot for Primestor CEO Arturo Sneider, who co-founded the company along with Leandro Tyberg 30 years ago and has helped it form partnerships with institutional investors up to this point.

There are seven sites across California included in the fund currently, which Primestor snapped up over the past three years, according to Tomas Landes, who leads investment management for Primestor.

“There were a lot of sellers in the market that were looking to sell assets in communities that were focused on the Latino and Black communities that are lower- and median-income, and we were able to make some very attractive purchases,” Landes said. “We’re thinking about how we can reposition those assets to match the evolution of the demographics of the communities.”

Of those, the furthest along is The Walk, an 89,000-square-foot apartment building in Norwalk south of Los Angeles, where Primestor is planning to build more than 300 units. The project is on track to break ground later this year, Landes said.

To date, Primestor has built an $836 million retail and mixed-use portfolio spanning 3 million square feet in California, Nevada, Arizona and Texas. In Los Angeles, the company is redeveloping the 312,000-square-foot Panorama Mall into a 17-acre master planned community with new housing, retail and hotel developments.

With the launch of the Urban Vision Fund in 2023, Sneider began casting around for more “mission-aligned” investment partners, he said in a statement.

Nonprofit foundations are in a good position to partner with housing developers, Landes added.

“I think it also marks a really big and exciting sea change that we see with a lot of foundations,” Landes said. “They’re not just following the traditional portfolio of investing, but really thinking about aligning their endowments with their mission. You see more and more foundations with that type of strategic shift.”

The fund will deliver projects in underinvested communities around Los Angeles, according to the company spokesperson. It will particularly focus on adding housing near future public transit nodes as the county works to expand the L.A. Metro ahead of the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Olympics.

Sneider’s plans over the next eight years are even more ambitious. Primestor eventually aims to create a pipeline of 1,500 units in L.A., according to the company.