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CDT Story

CDT Celebrates 25 Years of Positive Impact and Investment Returns

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CDT was formed as a real estate investment trust with a public purpose: to provide long-term capital for the preservation and development of affordable housing. We are now one of the largest and best-capitalized CDFIs in the country. 

CDT now has,

more than $3.6 billion invested

 

in 38,000+ affordable units

 

serving more than 140,000 residents in 45 states and regions.

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CDT’s roots trace back to the Local Initiatives Managed Assets Corp. (LIMAC), which was an affiliate of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC). LIMAC bought, repackaged, and sold loans from local community development groups, and eventually began to securitize the loans as well — investing its own capital as credit enhancement.

As LIMAC — and its opportunities to deploy capital in support of affordable housing — grew, its President, Judd S. Levy, landed on the concept of creating a REIT focused on community development. Paul Grogan, then President and CEO of LISC, supported the idea and LISC provided the seed capital for the initial investment in CDT.

This REIT was a first in the community development industry. Levy, as its first President and CEO, recruited staff members with significant real estate experience. Working alongside the existing LIMAC team, this team launched CDT. In May 1999, CDT closed a private placement offering that raised nearly $32 million from a who’s who of influential leaders in affordable housing and community development. Several of these initial investors or their corporate successors still invest in CDT today.

Since the initial offering, CDT has raised capital on seven additional occasions bringing its total capital offerings to $372 million. In 2002, CDT became a Certified Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI). Two of CDT’s founding officers are presently with the company. Joseph Reilly, a CDT Board member from its inception, became CDT’s second President and CEO in 2007. CDT has had the great benefit of a dedicated team of long-term employees and a committed and experienced Board of Directors, a number of whom were founding directors.