Roy Disney Firm Starts New Fund

Shamrock Capital Advisors, a Burbank-based investment arm of the Roy E. Disney family, announced Thursday that it had raised $104 million for a new fund to invest in depressed areas of Southern California.

Genesis Real Estate Fund II, like the initial Genesis Fund launched in 2000, will seek to stimulate economic development in low- and moderate-income communities in Los Angeles County, Shamrock said. The new fund will include Kern County and all counties to the south.

Investors in the new fund include banks, insurance companies and Shamrock. The for-profit fund will provide equity and debt financing to developers on real estate projects ranging in size from $10 million to $80 million.

The first fund of $76 million was leveraged to provide more than $250 million for retail, industrial, mixed use and creative office development, and was responsible for creating or retaining about 5,000 jobs in Los Angeles County, said Mark Schaffer, managing director of Shamrock Capital.

Investments by the first Genesis fund included Hollywood Studios in Hollywood, now owned by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Genesis was a partner in the development of the Van Nuys Industrial Park and the Exchange retail center in Hawthorne. The fund also is helping to upgrade the SouthBay Pavilion mall in Carson.

Shamrock is considering proposals for several projects seeking financing from the new fund, Schaffer said.

Roy E. Disney, nephew of Walt Disney, operates several investment funds under his Shamrock Holdings investment group.

One of his funds recently purchased an 80% stake in the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team.