Community Development Trust completes $64m offering.

The Community Development Trust (CDT), the country's only real estate investment trust (REIT) dedicated to investing in affordable housing, announced that it has completed a private offering of 4.25% Cumulative Perpetual Convertible Preferred Shares.

The proceeds will be used to expand the company's acquisition of debt and equity assets, primarily in affordable housing, that qualify as eligible investments under the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA).

The issue was originally sized at $50 million. As the issue was oversubscribed, the company raised the offering level and closed at $64 million.

Approximately $16 million of the proceeds will be used to repurchase CDT common stock issued in earlier offerings in 1999 and 2003. Approximately $48 million will be used to fund the company's growing debt and equity businesses over the next 30-36 months.

This equity capital will allow CDT to finance over $1 billion in community development assets. The company currently has approximately $600 million invested or committed in 38 states across the country. According to Peter Weidhorn, chairman of the Board of CDT, "The unexpected demand for the convertible issue is a testament to our unique ability to make prudent CRA-qualified investments while generating market rates of return to our investors."

Weidhorn added, "We were able to create additional shareholder value by marketing and closing the issue without a placement agent, enabling us to deploy nearly all of the proceeds into new, CRA-qualified investments."

The Community Development Trust (CDT) was developed with seed capital from LISC, the nation's largest nonprofit community development intermediary, to further LISC's broad support for community development initiatives and finance.