Real Estate Investing in Opportunity Zones

Opportunity Zones were created to stimulate economic development and job creation in low-income neighborhoods by incentivizing long-term investments in these areas. As COVID-19 and racial and economic inequality have heightened the needs of distressed communities, lingering questions remain about the initiative and how its potential stakeholders can benefit. Join the CalALTs Real Estate Special Interest Group (SIG) and our guest speakers to discuss real estate investing in opportunity zones. 

Register for this meeting here:  https://www.calalts.org/events/EventDetails.aspx?id=1460877 

About Our Speakers:

Steve Glickman, Founder and CEO of  Develop LLC , Former Senior Economic Advisor to President Barak Obama
Steve Glickman is the Founder and CEO of Develop LLC, and widely referred to as one of the “fathers” or “architects” of the Opportunity Zones program. Develop is the first independent advisory firm exclusively dedicated to building and supporting Opportunity Zone Funds and the broader Opportunity Zones marketplace. Develop’s clients include some of the largest and most influential Opportunity Zone Funds in America, collectively deploying billions of dollars in dozens of cities in real estate, energy and infrastructure, high-growth businesses, entertainment, impact investments, and other assets. Develop spearheaded the Opportunity Zones Index, the first comprehensive economic analysis of the 8,000+ Opportunity Zones in America.  


Steve is also the Co-Founder and former CEO of the Economic Innovation Group, the bipartisan public policy organization that developed the concept and legislation that launched the $6 trillion Opportunity Zones program. 
 
Steve previously served in the Obama Administration as a senior economic advisor at the White House, where he managed international trade, foreign investment, manufacturing and small business issues for the National Security Council and National Economic Council.  He was also Chief of Staff for the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service. 


Prior to the Administration, Steve served in legal roles on Capitol Hill, the U.S. Department of Justice, the Democratic National Committee, and a private law firm.  
 
Steve received his B.A. and M.A. from Georgetown University, J.D. from Columbia Law School, and LL.M. from the London School of Economics.  He is an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University, and serves on the Board of The NewDEAL.


  
 Ira Weinstein Managing Principal – Real Estate, Cannabis Industries,  CohnReznick

 Ira Weinstein serves as CohnReznick’s Managing Principal – Real Estate, Cannabis Industries, where he oversees the advisory, assurance, and tax services pertaining to both industries. His role is to develop and execute strategy that grows the capacity and capability of the firm’s resources dedicated to these industries for the benefit of our clients, our people, and our communities. 

The real estate practice includes the community development platform (all tax credits, public finance and affordable housing), commercial real estate, and construction. CohnReznick works with the full spectrum of real estate industry stakeholders including developers, institutional investors, private equity firms, lenders, asset management companies, REITs, and construction companies. The cannabis practice includes regulatory compliance for audit and tax services, tax structuring and all the advisory services designed to improve the operational effectiveness of many industry participants (plant touching and ancillary companies ). 


Prior to taking on this role, Ira spent the eight years managing the Baltimore office and over 20 years managing a consulting practice focused on providing strategic advisory services to clients in support of their vision for growth and enhanced enterprise value. He has extensive knowledge of the public-private partnership, specifically leveraging government programs to accomplish the project finance goals of his client base. Such programs include the federal and state New Markets Tax Credit 
 Programs, the federal and state historic tax credit programs, renewable energy tax credits for investment and production, and the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit. Ira is a subject matter expert and firm leader on Opportunity Zones, an economic development provision passed as part of the Tax Cut and Jobs Act, providing technical, transaction advisory, and entity formation services related to this provision. Ira speaks at conferences and seminars nationwide on a variety of topics. Before joining CohnReznick, he advised local economic development organizations on strategies to revitalize their geographic footprint. Before that, he spent several years in the corporate finance department of a public company raising capital for corporate and project finance and completing acquisitions and divestitures of company assets. His initial experience just post-college was doing credit analysis for a factor in extending credit nationwide across a variety of industries. 





 David Coelho, Chief Strategy Officer of  Bridge Investment Group 
 



David D. Coelho serves as Partner, Chief Strategy Officer of Bridge, and the Chief Investment Officer of the Bridge Opportunity Zones strategy. David is a member of Bridge’s Executive Administration Group and is also a member of the Investment Committee of the General Partner. David has over 20 years of experience in real estate and finance. He has completed over $3.0 billion of investment transactions and has advised on over $20 billion of public and private market mergers and capital markets transactions. David joined Bridge from NorthStar Asset Management Group where he was a Managing Director focused on equity investments. Prior to that, he was a Partner and Head of North America at Grove International Partners and worked in the investment banking groups of Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch. 


David received his Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Syracuse University and his Master of Business Administration from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a concentration in finance.
 
 



Frank Liu, Managing Director,  Canyon Partners Real Estate
Frank Liu, Managing Director at Canyon Partners Real Estate, is responsible for originating, underwriting, structuring, and executing debt and equity investments in the Northwest and Midwest regions as well as the Dallas and Houston markets. Mr. Liu joined Canyon in 2011 and has over 20 years of real estate experience in acquisitions, finance, and asset management that span across a range of platforms and product types. Prior to joining Canyon, Mr. Liu worked for the real estate investment arm of a family office based in Los Angeles, where he was responsible for the company’s capital markets, financing and restructuring activities. Mr. Liu has also previously held positions at Federal Realty Investment Trust, Lowe Enterprises, and The JBG Companies. Mr. Liu is a graduate of Georgetown University (B.A., Economics and Government) and The Fuqua School of Business at Duke University (M.B.A.).

This meeting will be moderated by Benjamin Beer of CohnReznick and Peter Bush of Ernst & Young LLP. Sign up with the link above and join the CalALTs Real Estate Special Interest Group (SIG) for what is sure to be a truly insightful discussion.