Billy Procida is the founder and president of Procida Funding LLC in Englewood Cliffs. — Photo courtesy: Aaron Houston
By Joshua Burd
A fund led by real estate industry veteran Billy Procida has doubled in size to $200 million, in a move that comes as it marks more than $1 billion in originations since its founding in 2011.
Procida Funding LLC, which manages the platform, said its investors have overwhelmingly approved the decision to upsize what’s known as the 100 Mile Fund. The investment vehicle is expanding for the second time since it launched as a $25 million fund, with a focus on lending and equity investments within 100 miles of the firm’s Englewood Cliffs office.
“Running one fund and staying local has been the key to longevity for us,” said Procida, founder and president of Procida Funding. Since inception, he said, the 100 Mile Fund has paid an annual distributed dividend of 12.42 percent.
It has also originated more than $1.25 billion in new deals and currently has roughly $500 million in assets under management, utilizing separate managed accounts and pari-passu or equal footing participations.
Procida is the former majority owner of Palisades Financial, where he ran two similar investment vehicles. Those funds completed more than $1 billion of loans and equity investments east of the Mississippi River, achieving dividends in excess of 10 percent on average during Procida’s tenure as CEO of the fund manager.
He formed the 100 Mile Fund after the lapse of his non-compete clause from the sale of majority stake at Palisades Financial. At the time, the $25 million fund was mostly comprised of funds from Procida, Chief Financial Officer Allan Lazaroff and close friends, but was expanded to $100 million in 2014.
After recently reaching the $100 million cap, Procida sought to again grow the existing platform rather than starting a new fund, giving way to a 99 percent vote in December by 100 Mile Fund shareholders to approve the move.
“The 100 Mile Fund is exactly what it sounds like,” Procida said. “As always, my standard is to protect principal. Everything after that is gravy, which comes from picking the right deals, partners and clients along with hard work, asset management and continually helping our clients; mining hundreds of deals and selecting very few to invest in. If you cater to the masses, it is hard to get hurt.”
