Prepare For Relaunch: Peakline Targets $1.3B Fundraise For Opportunity Zones
Peakline Real Estate Funds is getting an early start to raising money ahead of the relaunch of opportunity zones.
The private real estate investment firm Tuesday launched the Peakline Real Estate Qualified Opportunity Zone Fund IV Program, its fourth OZ-focused fund, looking to raise up to $1.3B in committed equity.
The fund will offer dual urban and rural capital tracks, which will give investors access to the boosted incentives available for rural development as part of the OZ program that launches in January — commonly referred to as OZ 2.0 because it replaces the existing tax break that sunsets at the end of the year.
Peakline is accepting cash for the fund and plans to begin deploying capital in January, after the OZ 2.0 program kicks in, the company said in an announcement. If it hits its targets, the fund would support more than $3B in OZ investment when including debt.
“As the Opportunity Zone market has evolved into a permanent part of the tax code, we see a significant opportunity to deliver differentiated investment solutions that combine strong real estate fundamentals with meaningful tax advantages,” co-founder and CEO Michael Miller said in a statement.
QOZ IV will have a Metro Fund focused on urban and suburban development, including multifamily, mixed-use and select infill industrial assets. A concurrent Rural Fund will focus on lower-density residential, industrial and energy infrastructure assets.
The split will allow Peakline to take advantage of an incentive in OZ 2.0 that triples the step-up basis tax deferral for rural development to 30%, versus 10% for projects on urban parcels.
Opportunity zones allow investors to roll realized capital gains into new investments, in the process deferring the tax liability on those gains and cutting the ultimate tax bill if the OZ investment is held for five years.
The federal government hasn’t yet announced which plots of land will be included in OZ 2.0. Governors are currently preparing lists of qualifying parcels — the new program lowered the income ceiling for which properties qualify and made other adjustments aimed at pushing funds toward economically disadvantaged areas — that are due in the next few months.
The final list of qualifying tracts isn’t expected to be available until the fall or winter, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Until then, OZ 1.0 is still in effect ahead of the new program’s launch, but investors that can afford to wait will typically realize significantly more tax savings by leveraging the new program.
Peakline has a pipeline of projects it’s targeting based on the income and other requirements for a parcel to qualify for OZ 2.0, a spokesperson for the firm told Bisnow on Tuesday.
The investment firm has deployed $1.2B in equity supporting $4B worth of OZ development across three prior funds that include residential, industrial, retail and office developments. The press release announcing the launch of its fourth fund doesn’t mention any plans for office investment from its latest fund.
