BETHESDA, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--JBG SMITH (NYSE: JBGS) today announced the formation of LEO Impact Capital (LEO), its workforce housing investment management platform aimed at acquiring, operating, and preserving middle income housing in rapidly growing neighborhoods vulnerable to rising housing costs. LEO is a subsidiary of leading Washington, DC-region owner and developer JBG SMITH.
JBG SMITH’s existing impact investment activities have been consolidated under LEO, including management of the Washington Housing Initiative Impact Pool (the Impact Pool). The Impact Pool, launched in 2018, is an approximately $115 million investment vehicle that works with non-profit and for-profit mission driven sponsors to acquire privately owned and unsubsidized housing that’s affordable to everyday working households. Since making its first investment in 2020, the Impact Pool has helped create and preserve more than 3,000 units across DC, Maryland, and Virginia, outpacing its goal to deliver 3,000 units by 2025.
LEO’s formation comes at a time of increasing pressure for “missing middle” Americans such as teachers, nurses, firefighters, administrative assistants, and other workers whose services are vital to thriving communities and whose incomes are too high to qualify for housing subsidies but not high enough to afford average market rents for themselves and their families in many of the nation’s most populous cities. According to Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, housing cost pressures are rising most rapidly among this group, with one third of missing middle renters in the U.S. currently devoting 30% or more of their incomes to rent.
AJ Jackson, who most recently served as Executive Vice President of Social Impact Investing at JBG SMITH, has been named President of LEO Impact Capital. “Our primary objective in creating LEO Impact Capital is to build on the successful track record of the Impact Pool and unlock access to opportunity for our investors, residents, and communities by helping people live in neighborhoods that set them up for success at rents they can afford,” said Jackson. “We have grown our impact investment operation significantly since launching our first social impact investment vehicle in 2018. As a result, consolidating our investment, asset, and portfolio management activities under a dedicated impact platform will allow us to continue to grow and best serve our residents, investors, and partners going forward.”
“LEO Impact Capital offers residents and our investment partners the best of both worlds,” said JBG SMITH CEO Matt Kelly. “LEO will benefit from a team of dedicated and experienced professionals focused on investing in and operating affordable workforce housing while generating fee income for JBG SMITH and strengthening its relationships in local communities. Access to affordable housing is as important to economic growth as education and job skills, and we are excited to continue to leverage our operating platform to address this critical need.”
About LEO Impact Capital
LEO Impact Capital unlocks access to opportunity by acquiring, operating, and investing in workforce housing in high-impact neighborhoods. Leveraging a data-backed double-bottom line approach, alongside the resources and deep experience of its NYSE-listed parent company, JBG SMITH, LEO seeks to deliver long-term value for investors, reduce risk, preserve affordability for residents, and drive measurable impact. For more information on LEO Impact Capital please visit www.LEOIC.com.
About JBG SMITH
JBG SMITH owns, operates, invests in, and develops mixed-use properties in high growth and high barrier-to-entry submarkets in and around Washington, DC, most notably National Landing. Through an intense focus on placemaking, JBG SMITH cultivates vibrant, amenity-rich, walkable neighborhoods throughout the Washington, DC metropolitan area. Approximately 75.0% of JBG SMITH's holdings are in the National Landing submarket in Northern Virginia, which is anchored by four key demand drivers: Amazon's new headquarters; Virginia Tech's under-construction $1 billion Innovation Campus; the submarket’s proximity to the Pentagon; and JBG SMITH’s deployment of 5G digital infrastructure. JBG SMITH's dynamic portfolio currently comprises 13.7 million square feet of high-growth multifamily, office and retail assets at share, 98% of which are Metro-served. It also maintains a development pipeline encompassing 9.3 million square feet of mixed-use, primarily multifamily, development opportunities. JBG SMITH is committed to the operation and development of green, smart, and healthy buildings and plans to maintain carbon neutral operations annually. For more information on JBG SMITH please visit www.jbgsmith.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements contained herein may constitute “forward-looking statements” as such term is defined in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance. They represent our intentions, plans, expectations, and beliefs and are subject to numerous assumptions, risks, and uncertainties. Consequently, the future results of JBG SMITH Properties (“JBG SMITH” or the “Company”) may differ materially from those expressed in these forward-looking statements. You can find many of these statements by looking for words such as “approximate”, “believes”, “expects”, “anticipates”, “intends”, “plans”, “would”, “may”, or similar expressions in this press release. We also note the following forward-looking statements: future investments; location of the affordable housing; range in affordability. Many of the factors that will determine the outcome of these and our other forward-looking statements, entitlements, and plans are beyond our ability to control or predict. These factors include, among others: adverse economic conditions and the political climate in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, the timing of and costs associated with development and property improvements, financing commitments, and general competitive factors. For further discussion of factors that could materially affect the outcome of our forward-looking statements and other risks and uncertainties, see “Risk Factors” and the Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023 and other periodic reports the Company files with the Securities and Exchange Commission. For these statements, we claim the protection of the safe harbor for forward looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to us or any person acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements contained or referred to in this section. We do not undertake any obligation to release publicly any revisions to our forward-looking statements after the date hereof.
