Primestor Development Inc., a minority-led, community-focused development group based in Culver City, has recently switched its funding model to broaden its investor base. The company has a heavy presence in South Los Angeles and specializes in bringing retail and urban development to low-income areas that lack them.
“We’re more of a facilitator or activism organization than a developer,” said Arturo Sneider, cofounder and chief executive of Primestor. “Our main focus is identifying projects where we can have significant economic and social impact.”
Sneider grew up in Mexico City and founded the company in 1992 along with Leandro Tyberg after moving to Los Angeles and feeling frustrated by the way he saw communities of color being perceived. He wanted to revitalize those neighborhoods.
Since then, the company has grown to 54 employees and has a project pipeline worth nearly $2 billion. Its portfolio is valued at over $700 million, encompassing over 2 million square feet throughout California, Nevada, Arizona and Texas.
“We look at projects of scale. Our average project is probably going to be no less than $150 million to $200 million that serves a need on the housing side, the economic development side and creates jobs for our community,” Sneider said.
Launching the Urban Vision Fund
To raise capital previously, Primestor engaged in joint ventures with institutional investors. Last year, the company transitioned, launching “The Urban Vision Fund I,” an equity commitment project that gives Primestor more discretion and the ability to broaden its investor base.
Freedom Plaza, in Watts, was developed by Primestor.
To date, the fund has raised $150 million, thanks to companies like Sherman Oaks-based real estate investment management firm Belay Investment Group and Switzerland-based global investment firm LGT Capital Partners.
“We’re trying to bring a large scale of capital into communities that historically don’t have access to capital,” Sneider said. “And use that capital to create, what I call, boulders in a pond, not pebbles in the ocean – projects that really bring economic vitality and vision for a neighborhood that would otherwise not happen.”
Primestor has invested more than $1 billion to date in urban, mixed-use real estate, and The Urban Vision Fund I serves as a platform for the continued expansion of its community-oriented business model centered on local economic empowerment, according to the company.
“There’s a social reconstruction going on in the United States. The (number of) people that are very wealthy is a ve …
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