Fundrise announced today an initial offering of a $2M crowdfunded investment package for Silverstein Properties' 3 World Trade Center.
For a $5k minimum investment, accredited investors can own a stake in what Ben Miller, Fundrise co-founder and CEO, calls “probably the most important real estate development in the country right now.” The investment amount can go as high as $5M if enough cash comes in. 3 WTC is scheduled to open in 2018. Tenants already on the books include Group M, a media investment management company, which will take 516k SF. Fundrise says investors can expect a 5% tax-free return their on investment in the 2.5M SF office tower over five years.
Silverstein's 7 World Trade Center
One reason it's tax-free, Ben says, is because the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act passed by Congress in 2012 allowed for entities to solicit investments from people they don’t know, without being a publicly traded company. (Here's a quick primer on crowdfunding.) The new business model is apparently not seen as a threat by some industry bigwigs like Silverstein CEO Marty Berger and president Tal Karret, who both invested in the young company. “Would you rather raise money from a bank or do it from home?” Ben said about Fundrise’s business model in a phone interview today. “Would you rather borrow more expensively or less?” Fundrise has 50 projects in 12 cities with about 40,000 investors throwing down.
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