Forsyth Street serves as fund manager for several public policy-coordinated and mission-oriented funds, most of which the firm also assisted in creating and capitalizing. The firm works across a broad range of impact areas, including affordable housing, service-enriched supportive housing, clean energy, community-based healthcare, community facilities, microfinance, urban redevelopment, neighborhood stabilization, and community development.
Through this work, Forsyth Street functions as a specialized lender and portfolio manager, with responsibility for tasks including real estate underwriting, loan origination and servicing, investor reporting, capitalization and balance sheet management, and new product development.
Forsyth Street currently manages approximately $300 million of capital, and over a ten-year period has underwritten approximately $540 million in total commitments corresponding to over 14,000 total units of housing created or preserved.
Selected Clients
New York City Acquisition Fund
In 2006, Forsyth Street developed the capital structure and implemented the launch of the New York City Acquisition Fund, which it continues to manage to this day. NYCAF is an industry-leading debt fund that leverages private capital with public and philanthropic investments. It makes two to three-year bridge loans on unusually flexible terms to affordable housing developers in New York City, for acquisitions of vacant sites or occupied properties at risk of losing affordability for existing occupants. NYCAF loans can also be used for predevelopment expenses and moderate rehabilitation costs. The Fund has provided approximately $380 million of capital, resulting in the preservation or creation of over 11,400 units of housing. In 2008, the Fund was recognized as an Innovations in American Government Award winner by Harvard University’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation.
Neighborhood Impact Investment Fund
Forsyth Street serves as Fund Manager to the newly-created Baltimore Neighborhood Impact Investment Fund (NIIF), a new $70 million fund aimed at revitalizing Baltimore’s historically disinvested neighborhoods. NIIF is an independent 501(c)(3) organization working in alignment with the City of Baltimore to promote community development and enhance inclusive economic growth in neighborhoods. NIIF’s eligible neighborhoods, which comprise approximately 65% of the City, have suffered from decades of population loss and tragic legacy of segregation. NIIF represents a large scale, intentional effort to support inclusive and equitable development growth in these communities. NIIF seeks to provide patient, flexible capital to these communities in order to catalyze other investment, move transformative projects forward, support small business and build on the successes of core, existing assets. Prior to serving as Fund Manager, Forsyth helped the City of Baltimore, which invested over $50 million in NIIF, design, capitalize and launch the Fund.
New Generation Fund
In 2008, Forsyth Street designed, implemented, and continues to serve as Fund Manager for the New Generation Fund in Los Angeles. The fund was established to facilitate the development of affordable housing, improve community stability, support transit-oriented development, and enable the City of Los Angeles to preserve the affordability of expiring use properties. Created through a partnership of the City and a consortium of banks, financial institutions, foundations and community development financial institutions, the $70 million fund leverages private capital with public and philanthropic investments . It makes three to four year bridge loans on flexible terms for vacant and occupied property acquisitions, predevelopment, and moderate rehab. Since inception, the Fund has originated over $110 million in loans, supporting the new production or preservation of over 2,000 affordable and supportive housing units.
Renewable Energy Partnerships
Forsyth Street is the managing member of five utility scale renewable energy partnerships located throughout the United States. The developments include two wind farms and three solar installations, and together have an installed capacity of 233 megawatts. Forsyth Street, together with our capital partner, created an innovative financing structure to allow municipal clients (both utilities and institutions) to utilize federal resources available for renewable energy developers.
National Community Stabilization Trust and REO Capital Fund
As the housing market deteriorated around the country in 2008 and 2009, Forsyth Street worked with leading national housing nonprofits, including Enterprise Community Partners, the Housing Partnership Fund, Local Initiatives Support Corporation, the National Council of La Raza, the National Urban League, and NeighborWorks America, in an unprecedented collaboration to establish the National Community Stabilization Trust. Emerging from grave concern about the devastating impact home foreclosures were inflicting on low and moderate-income communities, NCST has become a key connector between community-based organizations and distressed assets in their communities. Forsyth Street served as the Fund Manager for the Stabilization Trust REO Capital Fund — a subsidiary of NCST that provides financing for the acquisition and rehabilitation of distressed property — from the fund’s inception in 2009 until its conclusion in 2019. Over its 10-year term, the REO Capital Fund made over $61 million in loans to twenty-two community-based organizations in fifteen states and the District of Columbia, facilitating the acquisition and rehabilitation of over 660 units of previously distressed housing.
Enterprise Louisiana Loan Fund
In 2010, recovery was lagging in many low-income and minority New Orleans neighborhoods hard-hit by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Forsyth Street was hired by Enterprise Community Partners to restructure the existing Enterprise Louisiana Loan Fund to more effectively facilitate redevelopment in these neighborhoods. Forsyth Street worked extensively with Enterprise, public officials, private lenders, community groups, fund stakeholders, and local developers to craft a plan that would reposition the Fund in a manner complementary to other initiatives underway. Forsyth Street identified a gap in the availability of construction financing that was stalling redevelopment and refocused the fund to provide a construction loan guarantee product. Since the restructure, the Fund has succeeded in improving the availability of construction loan financing and accelerating the redevelopment of hard-hit target neighborhoods. In addition to advising Enterprise on the restructuring of the Fund, Forsyth Street served as the Fund’s program manager from 2011 through 2014.