By Anayat Durrani

When Chris Loeffler made the decision to quit his accounting job at PWC in 2009 to start a real estate company, his parents were, not surprisingly, a little concerned. But the decision made sense to Loeffler, who always wanted to be an investor.

Loeffler is now the CEO and co-founder of Caliber, the wealth development company, a middle-market alternative asset manager and fund sponsor. The company has more than $600 million in assets under management and $2.2 billion in assets under development. One area his company has been particularly successful in is in the realm of opportunity zone investing.

“What I love about opportunity zone investing is the relationships it has brought Caliber and me into and the results we are producing in terms of building community wealth,” says Loeffler.

On the relationship side, he says the company allows him to interact with and creatively collaborate with investors, competitors, developers, community members, government officials, and non-profits.

Caliber sponsors private funds and private syndications and conducts business through CaliberCos Inc., a vertically integrated asset manager delivering services, including investment formation and management, real estate development, construction management, acquisitions and sales.

“On the results side, we have driven hundreds of millions in GDP growth, tax base increase for city services, and payrolls for new employees,” he says.

Time is an asset for Caliber 

 While in the business of investing, one major life milestone ended up having a particular impact on Loeffler—the birth of his daughter. Her birth helped put everything into perspective and gave him a more refined focus.

“Her birth created a fundamental and permanent shift in my view of time. It is the most valuable asset I own, above all else, and how I used my time is critical,” says Loeffler. “She helped me understand the value in finding ways to do things more efficiently and to be very intentional on where Caliber, and where I, personally will invest time.”

In the last 10 years, his company has invested about half a billion dollars in areas that are identified as opportunity zones.

“As an early participant in the Opportunity Zone program, we’ve established deep relationships in this space and in the communities where we’re investing,” says Loeffler. “As a result, we now are looking to expand through co-investment and even merging smaller funds into ours to help smaller fund managers gain access to high quality projects and take the burden of reporting off their shoulders.”

The launch of a new Opportunity Zone fund for Caliber

The company recently announced that it launched Caliber Tax Advantaged Opportunity Zone Fund II, LLC, a $250 million equity fund targeted to invest in a diversified portfolio of real estate properties and real estate-related equity investments in select opportunity zones in high-growth markets across the Southwest U.S.

This is the company’s second tax advantaged opportunity zone fund. The Fund will pursue opportunistic real estate investment strategies, which include new development, new construction, adaptive re-use, and substantial renovations of existing assets or business operations.

Caliber’s first QOF, the Caliber Tax Advantaged Opportunity Zone Fund, LP, was closed to new investments on June 30, 2022. It raised more than $184 million and invested in 16 properties and one business, in Arizona and Texas.

“Caliber’s first QOZ fund launched 10 projects, but that equates to 30+ buildings. We expect to do the same or even more with Fund II, which launched in July,” says Loeffler. “This model works very well for us. It just makes sense to raise the funds, deploy them right away and keep the deployment high so that investor capital isn't sitting around waiting for a project.”

The goal of the Caliber Tax Advantaged Opportunity Zone Fund II

The Fund’s planned first investment will be The Riverwalk Development, located in the Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community (SRPMIC), adjacent to Scottsdale, Ariz., which offers exposure to a nearly 80-acre mixed-use commercial development. The Fund is also considering including other projects such as two multifamily developments in Mesa, Ariz., a mixed-use medical complex under development in SRPMIC, adjacent to Scottsdale, Ariz, and a series of Behavioral Health Hospitals, structured as build-to-suit investments across the U.S.

“We continue to employ a place-based strategy for our investments in Opportunity Zones. We look at census tracts and opportunity zones that we like location-wise, and then build what that particular community needs to thrive,” says Loeffler. “That’s why we’re a mixed asset fund versus a lot of our competitors who are a bit more siloed into one asset class, such as industrial or multi-family.”

Turns out taking a leap of faith to start a company wasn’t a bad idea after all.

“We intend to be a long-term, durable player in the opportunity zone space,” says Loeffler.


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