About
Overview
Urban Development Fund (UDF) was formed by Aries Capital to provide capital to developers of real estate projects that have a catalytic impact on community revitalization in underserved urban markets.
Since it was founded and awarded Community Development Entity (CDE) status in 2001, UDF has received 9 New Markets Tax Credits allocations, totaling over $620 million and making UDF one of the most impactful CDEs in the country.
As a CDE, UDF utilizes the subsidy afforded by the New Market Tax Credit to offer more favorable rates and terms that would not have been available to projects in the marketplace, and is committed to investing all of its NMTC equity in communities designated as areas of higher distress by the CDFI Fund.
UDF has been successful in creating stable employment opportunities and construction jobs for residents of low-income communities, renovating decaying or dilapidated structures, providing much needed goods and services, and spurring economic development in low-income neighborhoods where it is needed most.
Working together, UDF and Aries Capital are able to layer multiple federal and state tax incentives and subsidies, along with traditional debt, grants, tax increment financing and Historic Tax Credits, in order to build a complete financing solution.
UDF Team
Aries Capital
As an affiliate of Aries Capital, UDF’s financing expertise goes beyond the NMTC program. Aries Capital is a diversified, commercial real estate banking and investment firm headquartered in Chicago with offices in Miami and Los Angeles. Since its founding in 1991 by UDF and Aries Capital Chairman and CEO Neil Freeman, Aries Capital has arranged and/or directly funded over $8 billion for industrial, self-storage, retail, office, multifamily, hotel and other commercial assets across the United States and Caribbean.
Aries Capital’s banking team specializes in arranging debt and equity capital for clients nationwide through deep-rooted relationships with Wall Street CMBS Lenders, Banks/Credit Unions, Debt Funds, Family Offices, Insurance Companies, and other Institutional Equity Investors.
Aries Capital’s investment team – operating as Aries Capital Private Equity – is focused on the acquisition and operation of industrial and logistics assets, with a particular emphasis on net lease assets and sale-leaseback opportunities, throughout the Southeast with a concentration in Florida.
Aries and its affiliates hold additional diversified principal equity investments in commercial real estate assets currently valued at over $350 million. Notable assets include The Roosevelt New Orleans, A Waldorf Astoria Hotel, The 1,000-acre Three Oaks Master Development in Fort Myers, Florida, and newly constructed Tranquility Beach Resort on Meads Bay Beach in British Caribbean Anguilla.
Working together, UDF and Aries Capital are able to layer multiple federal and state tax incentives and subsidies in order to build a complete financing solution. For example, to finance the renovation of The Roosevelt New Orleans , Aries Capital combined five tax credit structures, comprising over $50 million of the project’s overall funding, to bridge the equity gap. Together, Aries Capital and UDF have successfully syndicated over $640 million in Federal and State NMTCs and Historic Tax Credits, along with other tax programs.
