Real estate crowdfunding platform Vesterr has completed multiple capital raises since its founding in 2022 and has helped usher dozens of first-time hotel investors into the industry, many of whom are from the Black community.
Founder/CEO Davonne Reaves created Vesterr as a FINRA member platform regulated by the SEC to give accredited and nonaccredited investors direct access to commercial real estate opportunities. She said the platform has since raised $2.7 million for projects that include two hotel acquisitions, a hotel development, a hotel fund and a car wash development. She estimates these efforts have resulted in between 50 and 75 new Black hotel investors, which, she said, are central to the platform’s mission of expanding ownership opportunities for people historically excluded from the space.
One of Vesterr’s early milestones involved investors from Reaves’ initial post-corporate acquisition of the Home2 Suites in El Reno, OK. Those same investors, AJA Investments, later used Vesterr to acquire a Holiday Inn in Lake Charles, LA, which was converted to a Wyndham-flagged property. The financing for that property was facilitated by Wyndham’s BOLD (Black Owners & Lodging Developers) program.
“It felt real in Lake Charles,” she said, recalling an AJA investor retreat after the conversion. “They explained their experience to me. The majority of the hotel ownership group is Black. The majority of investors were Black. The management company at the time was Black. The broker who helped find a deal was a Black woman. And, of course, the crowdfunding platform that they used to raise the capital was led by a Black woman. I was so emotional because it was a lot of people who became hotel investors because of Vesterr.”
Vesterr also supported the acquisition of the WeStay Suites in Belle Chasse, LA, owned by For Our Ancestors. Another sponsor raised capital on the platform for a hotel fund now under contract for its first property. Additional closed raises include a development opportunity in Puerto Rico and a smaller car wash development in Rhode Island.
Current offerings on Vesterr include a mixed-use development in Jacksonville, FL, led by a local sponsor, and a Fairfield Inn development outside Jacksonville, NC. The platform has about $5 million in capital needs active in the pipeline.
The CEO said that Vesterr is structured to give everyday investors a direct path into commercial real estate. The minimum investment is $5,000. “Anyone can invest, and anyone can raise capital,” she said. “Vesterr gives people an opportunity to invest directly into the asset.”
Investors use the platform to browse deals, select an opportunity, confirm their accredited or nonaccredited status and sign offering documents such as a subscription agreement. Funds are wired to Vesterr’s third-party escrow agent. In return, investors receive real estate securities that represent equity ownership in the deal, with share structures defined by each sponsor.
Deal sponsors must show control of a property through ownership, an approved LOI or a signed PSA. Vesterr conducts background checks and financial reviews and accepts only a fraction of submitted deals. All projects must be domestic commercial real estate. “We get everything,” Reaves said. “You would be surprised.”
Despite the platform’s growth, Reaves said much of its traction has come through organic interest. “For the longest time, it was a one-woman show,” she said. “Now we’re building our team and it’s time to put my foot on the gas and really push the marketing.”
To increase visibility, Reaves hosts events, speaks at conferences and appears on podcasts. She said word of mouth remains one of the strongest drivers. “Vesterr is their one-stop shop,” she said. “They come to Vesterr because they can invest in different commercial asset classes.”
Several early investors have already pursued their own deals independently. Reaves noted that some investors involved in the Lake Charles hotel deal later backed the Puerto Rico development and have since launched their own hotel projects. “Vesterr is being a part of something that’s changing lives and generations—particularly for Black investors,” she said.
That impact was especially clear during the platform’s first in-person event, VesterrCon, held last November in partnership with Howard University’s Marriott-Sorenson Center for Hospitality Leadership, which sponsored the event and its hospitality programming. Reaves described the gathering as a “Shark Tank for commercial real estate,” where investors met sponsors face to face and could invest immediately because the deals were live on the platform.
The event reached capacity with more than 60 attendees. The evening reception was held at the Hyatt House in Washington, DC, a property with Black ownership and a Black general manager.
Next year’s VesterrCon is expected to draw close to 200 attendees. In April, Vesterr will launch a companion event for deal sponsors focused on the capital-raising process. “We assist as a portal, but we can’t market individual deals,” Reaves said. “So, we’re creating sessions to help sponsors raise capital successfully.”
Reaves said Vesterr continues to seek new deals and encourages developers and owners to consider the platform when raising equity.
With more deals underway, new events planned and a broker-dealer transition approaching, the Vesterr platform is entering its next phase. “We’re growing,” Reaves explained. “We have more work to do and more goals to achieve, but it’s exciting to see Vesterr go from an idea to execution.”
