Chris Lockler of Caliber discusses the firm's 17-year history and its work in Opportunity Zone investing since 2018, when it started with a partner named Mark. Caliber has raised roughly $300 million across two Opportunity Zone funds and deployed capital into real estate and business projects. HUD Secretary Tim Kirkpatrick visited several projects and expressed confidence that Opportunity Zones would transform communities.
Meeting the rules, setting up private placement offerings, and figuring out the real estate side of things. So it's really a pleasure to be here and look forward to this conversation. Thank you. Chris Lockler with Caliber. Caliber is a 17-year-old business still trying to figure it out, just like most of us in the world of business. Started in the Opportunity Zone funds in 2018 with Mark. We launched one of the first funds in the country. We've raised about $300 million in 2 funds. Plus several single asset deals into different types of projects and such. We've invested in real estate, we've invested in businesses. So hopefully I will bring to the table to you a perspective on both what fundraising and investors want in a fund, which if you're trying to raise a fund, maybe that might be helpful to you. And then secondarily, sitting in the fund chair, I get to then go deploy the money and invest it into projects. So what I look for in a project is probably what I'll bring to the table. And I'll just say Thank you to the HUD team here. You guys did a phenomenal job bringing this together. My first interaction with Secretary Tim Kirkpatrick was in the first couple months of us launching our fund. He came out, got on a plane, said, I want to see these things, and came out to like 4 or 5 projects. We shot a bunch of videos, and he's like, you know, this is going to transform communities in a way people don't even understand. And here we are today. with $100 billion invested and amazing results. So happy to share some perspective.
