(Bloomberg)—Brookfield Asset Management Inc.’s New York-based real estate unit plans to start an opportunity-zone fund, joining the roster of financial firms in taking advantage of new U.S. tax breaks for investing in low-income communities.
“We are launching a fund in the next month or two,” Brookfield Property Partners LP Chief Executive Officer Brian Kingston said Monday at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Starwood Capital Group, hedge fund EJF Capital LLC and New York-focused RXR Realty LLC are among firms that have begun making investments in opportunity zones or are raising money to do so. The government incentives are meant to encourage development in areas “that are otherwise crippled,” Kingston said.
Real estate is attracting more interest from institutions including sovereign and pension funds seeking to hedge against long-term liabilities, Kingston said. Brookfield is invested in 30 countries including Brazil, Colombia and Chile, and probably won’t ever be in more than 35, in part because of a focus on strong rule of law and respect of private capital, he said.
--With assistance from Noah Buhayar.To contact the reporter on this story: Gillian Tan in New York at [email protected] To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alan Goldstein at [email protected] Dan Reichl, David Scheer
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