MJW Investments haslaunched a $500 million fund to focus on value-add multifamilyinvestment opportunities that will likely arise out of the economiccrisis. The firm launched the fund with a $300 million fundraisinggoal, but increased the threshold to $500 million after seeingstrong interest.

"Even before the virus, we felt that there were some imbalancesin the market," Mark Weinstein, founder andpresident at MJW Investments, tells GlobeSt.com. "Prices had gottenhigh, and we felt student housing was being mispriced because thereis more risk in it. We thought that there might be some correctionscoming, and we wanted to launch a fund to take advantage of thechanges that could come in the next year or two—but we didn'texpect anything like this. When this happened, we already hadeverything ready to go, and we modified it to address opportunitiesdue to the virus."

The fund will focus on value-add multifamily, distressed assetsand student housing. "We found that many people want to get out ofthe management business anymore, so we are looking for undervaluedreal estate both locally and nationally to hold for the long term,"says Weinstein. The majority of the fund's investors are high-networth individuals, family offices and private wealth managementfirms.