The Woodforest CEI-Boulos Opportunity Fund, a high-impact commercial real estate Opportunity Zone fund established by Woodforest National Bank and CEI-Boulos Capital Management, has placed a $1.1 million equity investment in the Zero Energy North Avenue Affordable Housing initiative. The project is located in the “Black Arts District” in West Baltimore’s Penn North neighborhood.

The fund is the only outside equity investor in the $4.9 million project, which will rehabilitate abandoned, historic townhouses. It is the first multifamily, zero-energy development in Baltimore and the first mixed-use, zero-energy development in MD.

The project will create 20 units of affordable housing and four commercial storefronts. The plan is to lease the storefronts to local, Black-owned businesses and neighborhood nonprofits, while the project’s goal is to accommodate future residents’ employment and living needs under one roof by providing first rights of refusal.

The project’s focus on sustainability is intended to address the overarching issue of environmental justice in underinvested communities.