SoLa Scores $35M Loan for Modular Affordable in South LA

SoLa Impact has secured a $34.8 million construction loan to build 188 affordable apartments in South Los Angeles.

The Watts-based “social impact” fund led by Martin Muoto landed the loan to build a five-story building at 4301 Vermont Avenue, in Vermont-Slauson, Commercial Observer reported.

The loan was provided by Acore Capital. Broker Chris Montes of Walker & Dunlop arranged the financing. Terms of the loan were not disclosed.

Plans for the building call for 188 “prefabricated modular units,” supplied by Model Z, a manufacturing unit of SoLa Impact. The powder blue complex would contain narrow vertical windows, according to a rendering.

Of the affordable apartments, 80 percent would be set aside for low-income households, and 20 percent for moderate-income tenants, according to Walker & Dunlop.

SoLa Impact, founded by Muoto in 2012, owns and manages more than 1,500 apartments in South Los Angeles, with another 1,500 affordable and workforce housing units in the pipeline, according to its website.

Its Black Impact Fund (Fund IV), will be adding another 3,500 units in greater Los Angeles, making SoLa one of the largest minority-led developers in the nation. In 2022, The California State Teachers’ Retirement System invested $50 million in the fund.

At the same time, SoLa received a $25 million investment from Palo Alto PayPal to build low-rent apartments in and around opportunity zones in Los Angeles.

— Dana Bartholomew