Opportunity Alabama announced Wednesday the creation of the OPAL Fund – a qualified opportunity fund formed to invest in projects that meet expressed community needs and build wealth for people traditionally underrepresented in investing.

The OPAL Fund was created to invest in real estate projects that can produce market rates of return, engage minority and woman-owned business enterprises (MWBEs) in development and management, and create better communities across Alabama.

Alex Flachsbart, founder and CEO of OPAL. (file)

“In building an investment ecosystem during the past few years, we have identified a need to more intentionally and strategically diversify our investor base,” said Alex Flachsbart, founder and CEO of Opportunity Alabama. “With the OPAL Fund, we will work to ensure investors and entrepreneurs are representative of the diverse tapestry of Alabama, and that opportunities for wealth building are equitably available.”

The OPAL Fund’s targeted $10 million “proof of concept” round was surpassed, with $13 million in commitments signed at closing in March. Initial investors in the OPAL Fund include corporate foundations, such as the Regions Foundation and Alabama Power Foundation; family offices, such as Jemison Investment Co.; community trusts, such as the Housing Affordability Trust; and large Alabama-based corporations.

OPAL Fund participants include individual accredited investors like Larry and Kim Lewis of ProjectXYZ, an African American and woman-owned technical solutions company based in Huntsville, that plans to leverage its fund participation to create a broader minority business investment community across the state.

“We have spent the past two and a half years building relationships with national capital sources and with developers working in Alabama’s opportunity zones, making introductions and providing technical assistance to help get deals done,” Flachsbart said. “We see the OPAL Fund as our opportunity to get more local capital into projects in our own backyard.”

In 2020, Forbes selected Opportunity Alabama as an OZ/20 Catalyst Grand Prize Winner, a national award given to the top-performing impact-oriented opportunity zones and local organizing groups in the United States.

Since its inception in 2018, Opportunity Alabama has helped close $300 million in deals, along with capacity-building work to generate investable, community-centric projects across the state.

The OPAL Fund is the product of a partnership between OPAL Advisory (Opportunity Alabama’s registered investment adviser subsidiary) and Blueprint Local, which has a long national track record in impact investing and commercial real estate. Grants from the Appalachian Regional Commission and the Economic Development Administration helped make the OPAL Fund possible.

The OPAL Fund will remain open to accredited investors until the end of 2021.

To learn more about the OPAL Fund, click here. To engage with the team, email opalfund@opportunityalabama.com.