Ascent Developer Solutions, a real estate lending firm based in Encino, has expanded its platform with plans to invest in manufactured housing communities.

The firm, which was founded in 2024, hired Gene Kim as executive vice president of commercial real estate strategies in October to help spearhead this initiative, officially announced earlier this month.

Working with manufactured housing developers, operators and investors, Ascent will offer construction, bridge and term financing solutions, noting an uptick in demand for these services.

“Our country has an affordable housing crisis that I think has been very well documented and that most people are aware of,” Kim said. “And manufactured housing is really the most practical and viable solution… It is a perfect means to provide home ownership to working class families.”

As part of its strategy, Ascent will be partnering with the same borrowers and sponsors consistently on multiple projects as opposed to one-off deals, Kim said.

While a big focus for these projects will be affordable workforce housing, Kim said manufactured housing also lends itself well to “age restricted, retirement focused, lifestyle-oriented and active adult communities.”

Target markets

As of now, Ascent is focusing this lending product on Texas, Florida and the Southeast. The team recently financed the acquisition of a San Antonio site slated to host 400 manufactured homes. While Kim said he could not disclose the loan size on this deal, he provided general estimates of what Ascent will deploy in these types of deals.

For communities with less than 50 home sites in more secondary or tertiary markets, Kim said the loan size would typically be under $5 million. For larger developments, it could get up to $50 million.

While the need for affordable housing is certainly pronounced in Southern California, the opportunity for manufactured housing communities is not quite there yet, Kim said.

“The largest challenge and barrier to entry in manufactured housing development specifically has been the ability to get entitlements and approvals from the municipalities to develop these communities,” Kim said. “And this is not just L.A. County, but California (as a whole).”

Part of the issue is “the misperception of the product type and the NIMBY (not in my backyard) effect,” he added.

What Kim hopes people will realize is that these communities can be done well, pointing to high-end finishes and advanced construction technology. To his estimates, these homes can be built for 30% to 50% less than traditional, single-family homes built on site.

“The homes are beautiful,” he said. “People need to see them. They need to have the exposure and be educated on the quality of the product and then the cost relative to the quality – it’s jaw dropping.”

All that said, Ascent is still involved in the local market here. At the end of last year, the firm provided a $400 million construction debt facility to Aliso Viejo-based Thomas James Homes to support TJH’s growth initiatives in California, the Pacific Northwest and Arizona, which includes plans to break ground on 100 rebuild projects in Pacific Palisades this year.