- Forward look: Fund manager CEI-Boulos is in talks with other banks aimed at creating high-impact investment funds similar to TD’s.
- Expert quote: “We’re proud to support a development that not only addresses critical housing needs but also creates space for local small businesses and promotes long-term community resilience,” said TD’s head of U.S. commercial real estate.
- Supporting data: TD’s fund is the third single-investor fund CEI-Boulos has launched with a bank partner. The firm’s other funds were funded by NBT Bancorp and Woodforest National Bank.
TD Bank has taken an equity stake in a South Philadelphia affordable housing project through a $25 million real estate investment fund that it’s bankrolling.
Cherry Hill, New Jersey-based TD is investing $4 million in the 49-unit mixed-use housing project in the Grays Ferry neighborhood, which is to be built on a gravel parking lot.
“It will bring much-needed affordable workforce housing to Grays Ferry,” said Sam Spencer, managing director of CEI Boulos Capital Management, which is administering the fund, in a Wednesday press release.
The Stringer Square project is the first investment for the fund, which was launched in January. The fund will focus on TD’s Community Reinvestment Act assessment area in metro Philadelphia.
“We’re proud to support a development that not only addresses critical housing needs but also creates space for local small businesses and promotes long-term community resilience,” Hugh Allen, TD’s head of U.S. commercial real estate, said in the press release.
CEI-Boulos’ business model involves tapping institutional investor cash for its funds, which are aimed at supporting housing and small-business development in underserved neighborhoods. Increasingly, the firm’s partners are banks.
It has managed a $10 million fund underwritten by the $16 billion-asset
The banks’ contributions are structured as investments, so there is the promise of a financial return. Equally important, perhaps, the funds generate Community Reinvestment Act credit.
NBT’s most recent CRA exam in October 2023, which cited the CEI-Boulos fund, resulted in a “High Satisfactory” rating. Woodforest received an “Outstanding” rating in its May 2023 CRA exam, which also cited its link to CEI-Boulos.
In addition to its single-investor funds created in partnership with Woodforest, NBT and now TD, CEI-Boulos helps manage a $50 million national multi-investor fund with Alleviate Capital, a Woodforest subsidiary, that counts the $186 billion-asset KeyCorp as an investor, according to Spencer. Through 2024, that fund had invested in six projects totaling 995 affordable housing units.
CEI-Boulos is “in discussions with a number of other banks” about launching new single-investor funds, Spencer told American Banker on Wednesday. The Brunswick, Maine-based company’s focus “is to help banks meet their CRA requirements,” Spencer said. “It’s fairly unique. I don’t know of many groups that are doing anything similar.”
In Philadelphia, TD and CEI-Boulos created a seven-member advisory board of local community leaders, including a bank representative, to provide input on investment opportunities.
The Stringer Square project was chosen to address a “critical housing shortage” in the Grays Ferry neighborhood, a CEI-Boulos spokesperson told American Banker in an email. It will include a mix of efficiency, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units.
“This development is rooted in creating opportunity, equity, and lasting impact in a vibrant and growing neighborhood,” Dawn Marlin, CEO of Philadelphia-based Small Girl Development, which is overseeing the Stringer Square project, said in the press release.
TD launched its fund about three months after U.S. banking regulators
TD has fared better with its CRA compliance. Its most recent exam results, released in July 2024, included “Outstanding” ratings on its lending and investment tests and a “High Satisfactory” on the service test.