LOS ANGELES-Phoenix Realty Group has landed commitments for $176 million in capital in the first closings of two funds designed to provide financing for housing and commercial projects in California, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. The two are the $250 Million Metropolitan Workforce Housing Fund and the $175 Million Genesis Workforce Housing Fund II.

The Metropolitan Workforce Housing Fund has received $96 million of institutional capital from investors including Northwestern Mutual, John Hancock Life Insurance Co. and the Lincoln National Life Insurance Co. The Genesis Workforce Housing Fund II received a total of $80 million in equity capital primarily from L.A.'s largest public pension funds: the Los Angeles City Employees Retirement System, the Los Angeles County Employee Retirement Association, the Los Angeles Department of Fire and Police Pensions.

Both funds expect to be fully capitalized by the end of March, with all monies invested in market-rate housing, mixed-use and community revitalizing commercial projects in urban and infill locations. With these closings and others in the past three years, Phoenix will have established funds totaling more than $700 million to invest in new housing and commercial developments, according to Keith Rosenthal, president of Phoenix Realty Group.

The two new closings follow news from Phoenix late last year that the Genesis Workforce Housing Fund II would create housing developments for middle-income families across the Los Angeles area. The fund managers and investors cite the need for such projects to provide work force housing for teachers, firefighters, nurses and other workers.

The Genesis Workforce Housing Fund II follows Phoenix Realty Group's $103-million Genesis Workforce Housing Fund, also known as Genesis I, which launched in March 2003. Genesis I, focusing solely on for-sale and rental housing for the middle-income work force in the L.A. area, has already invested in more than a dozen for-sale and rental projects.

The new Genesis II fund, when fully invested, will supply 2,250 housing units valued at $750 million across the Los Angeles region. Among the for-sale projects funded by Genesis I was Puerta del Sol, a 165-unit condominium loft development.