PGIM RE strengthens community partnerships

Listen to this article

The $206.8 billion real estate investment and financing business of PGIM announced several new partnerships before the start of the month.

On Sept. 28, Madison-based PGIM Real Estate revealed the collaborations – and a cumulative investment of $150,000 – with five nonprofit organizations that help to advocate for racial equity and social justice in the U.S.:

• Operation HOPE – works to expand economic opportunity, making free enterprise work for everyone;
• Russell Innovation Center for Entrepreneurs – an economic mobility engine for the community, helping Black entrepreneurs and small business owners to innovate, grow, create jobs and build wealth;
• Shelters to Shutters – dedicated to transitioning individuals and families experiencing homelessness to economic self-sufficiency by providing career training, employment and housing opportunities.
• Ella Baker Center for Human Rights – named after civil rights hero Ella Baker, organizes with Black, brown, and low-income people to build power and prosperity in California communities.
• N.J. Institute for Social Justice – works to empower people of color by building reparative systems that create wealth, transform justice and harness democratic power from the ground up in the Garden State.

The group builds on PGIM Real Estate’s commitment to serving the communities in which it operates and invests. The company also has multiyear agreements with YouthBuild and KIPP (that relationship dates back to 2017), which provide underserved communities with increased access to training, education and career opportunities in the real estate industry.

According to PGIM Real Estate, the new programming also aims to help better educate its employees, through awareness of the organizations and their missions, and by encouraging volunteerism.

“We are thrilled to announce these exciting new community partnerships that demonstrate our unwavering commitment to promoting values of equity and inclusion in the communities where we operate and live,” said Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer Christy Lockridge in a statement.

Lockridge is the inaugural DEI officer for PGIM Real Estate; the 30-year industry professional joined the newly formed DEI office, which she chairs, in April.

“PGIM Real Estate has made its social and environmental consciousness clear with global ESG investments, and the decision to expand its community partnerships underscores the firm’s desire to support these values at home,” she added.

ICYMI

In May, CT Realty announced it acquired 282 acres of industrial land in Salem County in a joint venture with PGIM Real Estate. The site will be developed into the Garden State Logistics Park: a 1.7 million-square-foot logistics center situated amid 66 million consumers within a day’s truck drive. Read more here.