Benjamin Jiang’s business can be approached through a small apartment property in Hayward. In September 2016, his firm was sponsoring the acquisition and rehabilitation of Greenleaf Apartments, a 22-unit building. RealtyShares arranged a $500,000 preferred-equity investment through its online network. The location was specific. The pool of potential investors reached across the country.
There is a certain pleasure in that mismatch of scale: a national conversation about a local set of front doors. Jiang, then identified as Tesseract Capital Group’s managing partner, was talking about the merits of finding capital through an online marketplace. Tesseract had already used the platform on another project, including a neighboring property. This was a repeat arrangement, with a familiar neighborhood at one end and a wider audience at the other.
Apartment investing has a habit of turning homes into vocabulary. Units. Assets. Equity. Rehabilitation. Jiang’s career gives those terms a sequence: find an investment, assemble its financing, work with partners, and carry out the plan. At each stage, a different group of people has to be persuaded that the next step makes sense.
A small property, a national pool of investors
Greenleaf was Tesseract’s second Hayward acquisition. The plan called for interior and exterior renovations, with the firm managing rentals during ownership. The apartments were described at the time as renting below market rates. Acquisition and rehabilitation sat together in the proposal; the building’s condition and its future income belonged to the same calculation.
“real estate crowdfunding has tremendous upside as a capital source”
Benjamin Jiang · September 2016
Jiang also described the platform’s role in introducing the firm to investors nationwide. His argument linked funding with visibility. A real estate project could attract money while introducing the sponsor to people who might otherwise never encounter a Hayward apartment investment. The internet had found another use beyond encouraging strangers to argue about parking.
For this story, that early transaction supplies a useful opening. The preferred-equity amount, the size of the property, and the renovation plan are all concrete. So is Jiang’s involvement in explaining why the financing arrangement mattered. An investment strategy becomes easier to understand when it has an actual building attached.
The jobs behind the job
Jiang graduated from the University of California, Berkeley. His working background includes Bank of America’s real estate investment banking group, Prudential’s commercial real estate lending division, and the multifamily acquisitions team at Bridge Partners. He later became Tesseract’s co-founder and CEO, responsible for strategy, sourcing investments, raising capital, and key partnerships.
Those responsibilities put him among several parties to a transaction. Buyers need buildings; lenders examine loans; investors consider the proposed use of their money. His earlier roles covered several of those positions. The resulting career has remained tied to real estate while moving across the financial work surrounding it.
The organization around him has its own divisions of labor. Co-founder and partner William Chu oversees corporate financial matters and executive project management, while also working on sourcing, underwriting, and closing acquisitions. His background includes investment banking and a Berkeley degree. Derek Flores serves as president of development and construction. A transaction has plenty of room for different kinds of expertise, even before anyone discovers a troublesome pipe.
There is a quieter Berkeley-era thread as well. Jiang’s LinkedIn profile records membership and alumni involvement in Lambda Phi Epsilon. It also lists volunteer work for Arcadia High Music Club, handling web redevelopment and financial budgeting from September 2014. These are specific activities outside his executive title, with a familiar combination of practical and financial work.
Sixty days, three different numbers
In September 2021, Tesseract announced the closing of its second closed-end multifamily equity fund. The original target was $40 million. The firm passed that figure within the first 30 days, increased maximum capacity to $50 million, and finished the next 30 days with nearly $55 million in requested commitments.
Precision helps here. The closed fund was $50 million; the larger figure described requests. Treating the two as interchangeable would give a pleasantly inflated impression and a less useful account of what happened. Finance already supplies enough complications without help from adjectives.
The announced structure was a draw-down fund, with investment deployment planned across ten assets. Nine were expected to be existing properties offering redevelopment opportunities; one was intended as land for new construction. Northern California was to account for 90 percent of the targeted assets, with the remainder in Southern California. Those were plans at the time of the announcement, setting out where the money was meant to go.
Compare that arrangement with the earlier Greenleaf project and the progression is visible. The 2016 transaction raised preferred equity around a particular property. Fund II organized equity around a proposed collection of properties. The work of raising capital had acquired a different shape.
The buildings after the signatures
Tesseract entered the Sacramento market with Westlake Apartments, a 148-unit community in Pocket-Greenhaven. The firm contracted for the acquisition in September 2021 and announced its completion that December. KeyBank Real Estate Capital and Newmark worked on the transaction. The property included patios, a pool, parking, lakeside barbecue areas, and a private dock: a rather more tangible inventory than the phrase “multifamily asset” suggests.
Meadowbrook Apartments followed in West Sacramento. Tesseract contracted for that 92-unit property in November 2021 and announced the $16 million acquisition in February 2022, working with Dwight Mortgage Trust and Newmark. Individual patios, covered parking, and swimming pools were among the amenities. Across these transactions, the firm’s map was widening beyond its Bay Area base.
The financing work continued after acquisition. In September 2024, Tesseract obtained a $32.6 million HUD-backed loan through Dwight Capital to refinance Westlake. The proceeds were intended to repay existing debt and support improvements. The property’s National Green Building Standard bronze certification qualified it for a mortgage-insurance premium reduction. Here, a building credential appeared directly in the financial arrangements.
Environmental improvements also carried practical limits. In an earlier discussion of electrification, Flores pointed to the need for electrical infrastructure to develop alongside the move away from natural gas. Transmission, transformers, storage, cost, and timing all mattered. It is the sort of detail that gives a sustainability ambition an appointment with the construction schedule.
The wider portfolio shows how specific the physical work can become. Tesseract’s case studies describe solar installations, upgraded electrical systems, water-efficient fixtures, and renovations to apartment interiors. They also describe adding dwellings within existing properties. These are project descriptions, each attached to its own site and scope. Collectively, they put some texture behind the firm’s redevelopment business.
A waterfront address, a longer obligation
In August 2022, Tesseract announced its first Marin County acquisition: The 400 Apartments in San Rafael, purchased for $32 million. The 99-unit property stood beside San Rafael Creek, with balconies and patios, a playground, a community room, and a private dock. KeyBank and JLL Capital Markets worked with Tesseract on the acquisition.
The property’s later chapter involved affordable-housing preservation. In January 2026, the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority announced a collaboration with Tesseract at The Meridian. The program would help preserve up to 99 affordable homes, with at least 60 apartments initially being converted. A recorded restriction would maintain affordability into the future.
Affordable-housing preservation through a partnership between Tesseract and BAHFA.
The arrangement involved more than a property owner and a financing agency. Residents, a tenants’ union, community organizations, and the city had participated in the effort. Flores spoke about working with those groups toward a shared housing goal. That collective work belongs in the account: an executive biography can become crowded when it gives every contribution a chair.
The initiative also had a broader company context. Tesseract began a California affordable-housing effort in 2024, working with public agencies and nonprofits. By August 2025, it reported converting three assets into long-term affordable communities after evaluating dozens of opportunities. The new work added preservation arrangements to an existing business of acquiring and redeveloping apartments.
The Modesto chapter comes around
Another part of the story began with Tesseract’s 2020 purchase of Summerview and The Marc at 1600, a combined 236 apartments in Modesto. The firm had contracted for the properties in December 2019 and completed both purchases on the agreed schedule. The Mogharebi Group worked on the transaction. It was a Central Valley expansion with a future sale still several years away.
Summerview sold for $37.6 million in February 2025. The community contained 136 apartments across 20 buildings; previous ownership had completed full or partial renovations in 120 units. The Mogharebi Group represented Tesseract, and the buyer was Summerview Apartments ABC LP. An assumable loan was among the features that attracted the purchaser.
Then, in September 2026, The Marc at 1600 sold to a Southern California family office for $26.6 million. The 100-unit community carried an assumable HUD loan at 3.8 percent. Tesseract had renovated much of the interiors, exteriors, and common areas during its ownership. The sale brought another of the earlier Modesto investments into a later stage of its life.
For Jiang, the professional thread runs through the work of bringing these arrangements together: capital, property, partners, and an investment plan. Around that thread are buildings changing ownership, apartments undergoing work, and a San Rafael community entering an affordability program. The numbers mark the transactions. The buildings carry on with the story.