Crowdfunding is a natural fit for commercial real estateinvestment, according to developer JonathanGenton, founding partner and CEO of GentonProperty Group. The capital platform is, of course, nottotally new. It arrived on the industry five years ago as analternative equity and debt source, and since, several companieshave emerged to provide crowdfunding services. Crowdfunding hasbeen sold to real estate players as a way to reach both large andsmall investors they otherwise wouldn't be able to access. However,crowdfunding can tell the real estate story to capital investorsand capture a new investment pool for the industry.

“Crowdfunding matches investors that want to access real estatewith owners or real estate holding companies through a transparentprocess,” Genton tells GlobeSt.com. “Through crowdfunding,investors can see the property, the developer and the holdingcompany, and they can make their evaluation. When you are dealingwith real estate, you are dealing with larger projects that areasset based as opposed to product based. There is some comfort inbuying apartments in Los Angeles because the investor can see anasset there.”