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Milken Experts Embrace Social Consciousness

BEVERLY HILLS, CA-Real estate insiders find that they can make a profit while doing the "right thing" through opportunities like double-bottom-line projects.

By Daniel D. Williams | Updated on April 24, 2007

BEVERLY HILLS, CA–One of the main thrusts of the Milken Institute Global Conference 2007, which concludes today at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, is to shed light on social consciousness. That line of thinking led to the panel: “Real Estate Investments That Benefit Portfolios, Communities and the Environment.” Moderated by Deborah La Franchi, president and CEO of Strategic Development Solutions, the panel focused on double-bottom-line funds—private equity funds that emphasize the revitalization of blighted or low-income areas.

Sometimes that mission – of doing good and doing right – is met with mixed results. Allan Emkin, managing director of Pension Consulting Alliance, said his first reaction is “gag” when someone brings him a double-bottom-line project. “The first responsibility to my client is to pay pension benefits. When I get (double-bottom-lines), they’re selling the ‘benefits’ not the investments.”

That doesn’t mean they can’t be profitable. Shamrock Capital Advisors Inc., and its Genesis Fund, has specialized in double-bottom-line projects. The fund has targeted rundown areas with strong success. A retail project in Carson, CA saw the repositioning of South Bay Pavilion, which had been a traditional, enclosed single-story mall. In a joint venture with Hopkins Real Estate Group, the developers relocated existing tenants, demolished 135,000 sf and replaced it with a 142,000-sf Target, according to Shamrock managing director Daniel Beaney. Another project, Agua Mansa Industrial, created 2,400 new jobs.

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