Gerding Edlen closes Green Cities fund at $183M

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Gerding Edlen, developer of neighborhoods including Portland's South Waterfront, closed its Green Cities fund this week at $183 million.

Gerding Edlen Development Co. has closed its Green Cities I LP Fund after raising $183 million.

Portland-based Gerding Edlen initially aimed to raise $500 million when it launched the fund in late 2009 but altered its goals as the recession dampened enthusiasm for real estate funds.

Molly Bordonaro, senior vice president for the investment program, said the final tally was a huge success for the first-time fund.

The Portland development firm announced Tuesday it has closed the fund after extending the deadline by more than a year.

It launched the fund to acquire well-positioned properties at recession-level prices.

It scored an early endorsement in late 2010 when TIAA-CREF, a New York Investment giant, invested $29.8 million.

Gerding Edlen uses proceeds to invest in urban apartment and mixed- used buildings, including projects still in the planning stages. In keeping with the company’s green ethos, all its projects aim to earn the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED designation. Its target communities are Southern California, San Francisco, Seattle and Boston.

Company officials did not discuss the fund in detail prior to closing the investment phase, citing U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rules. Now that it is closed, Bordonaro disclosed it is as fully invested in projects it believe are well positioned to succeed.

“This is a real success story,” she said.

Investments to date include:

• In August 2011 it purchased Avalon Redondo Beach, a 105-unit complex in Southern California, for an undisclosed price.

• In April 2011, it purchased an undeveloped 118-unit retail-anchored apartment project in the heart of downtown Seattle for $5.6 million.

• Also in April 2011 , it acquired two California development properties, in San Francisco and the Los Angeles suburb of Venice.

It paid $9.2 million for the San Francisco site, where it is developing a 107-unit residential property with 10,000 square feet of retail space near Pacific Heights. The Los Angeles project was acquired mid-construction for $8.6 million. The project consists of 70 apartment units, retail space, restaurant space and an underground parking garage.

Gerding Edlen is one of Portland’s best known and most admired developers for its commitment to sustainable design and the concept of creating communities where residents live, work and play within a 20-minute radius.

A series of recession set-backs dinged its financial reputation as lenders took over condominium projects when sales stalled and construction loans became past due. Even as it lost control of some of its most prominent developments, its reputation remained intact. It has topped the Portland Business Journal’s Most Admired real estate firms list since the program began in 2005.

Its lost projects include the John Ross tower at Portland’s South Waterfront and the 593-unit Bellevue Towers on Seattle’s east side.

It now concentrates its energy on the rental market.

“We continue to see demand for well designed, well located apartments in our targeted markets with sustainability becoming significantly important to renters including the largest renter pool, ‘generation y,’” Bordonaro said in the press release.