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Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Business
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Cityview opens New York City office
This story was originally published on Multifamily Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Multifamily Dive newsletter. Earlier this week, Cityview announced its expansion into the Eastern U.S. by opening a New York City office headed by Christoph Donner, the firm's global head of capital development and strategy and former CEO of PIMCO Prime Real Estate LLC. The Los Angeles-based real estate investment manager intends to strategically expand its investment and capital-raising strategy beyond its existing Western and Southwestern U.S. markets into the East Coast. Cityview also plans to pursue acquisition opportunities in Boston; Orlando, Florida; and Atlanta. In the future, it is targeting Raleigh, North Carolina, and Charleston, South Carolina, according to a news release. To determine where to expand, Cityview partnered with RCLCO Real Estate Consulting to identify high-potential markets for multifamily investment based on historical performance, current fundamentals and forward-looking economic forecasts based on 55 key data points. 'Cityview has historically focused on supply-constrained markets on the West Coast, and in recent years we've diversified our strategy to include more demand-driven centers across the Southwestern U.S., including Dallas and Phoenix,' said Sean Burton, CEO of Cityview, in a news release. 'Now, we're expanding nationally with a strategic move into East Coast markets that show strong fundamentals and are poised for future growth.' The key drivers in Cityview's expansion markets are: Boston's high level of professional employment and education, which creates a stable foundation for demand, according to Cityview. New deliveries in the metro are low relative to demand and projected future supply. Orlando's strong positive exposure to demand and relatively small negative exposure to supply, according to Cityview. The firm says the market's strong employment and population growth and its business-friendly environment help drive its strong performance. Atlanta's employment and population growth, which drove demand in the market higher than many of its peers, according to Cityview. In addition, the metro ranked first in average annual return over the past decade and in the top five for average yearly sales volume. Cityview has also been active recently in its current investment markets. In the first quarter, it acquired four assets and recapitalized one property. Last December, the firm bought Candela, a 112-unit value-add in the Hollywood Hills and Franklin Village neighborhood of Los Angeles. It paid Raintree Partners $36 million for the asset. 'Well-located multifamily assets are poised to become even more desirable over the next five years as new multifamily construction starts have ground to a halt, making 2025 a prime opportunity to acquire existing product at today's basis,' Burton told Multifamily Dive in January. Click here to sign up to receive multifamily and apartment news like this article in your inbox every weekday. Recommended Reading Greystar joins the direct financing fray Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Business
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Centerspace puts Minnesota apartments on the sales block
This story was originally published on Multifamily Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Multifamily Dive newsletter. Centerspace is marketing its entire five-community portfolio in the Saint Cloud, Minnesota, region for sale, and several properties from its Minneapolis portfolio are on the block, according to a news release. The Minneapolis-based apartment REIT is also adding to its portfolio. In late May, it officially entered Salt Lake City, Utah, with the purchase of Sugarmont, a 341-unit property located in the Sugar House submarket with walkable access to multiple retail, dining and recreational offerings, for $149 million. The property was built in 2021. Centerspace also signed an agreement to acquire a 420-unit community in Fort Collins, Colorado, for $132 million, with closing anticipated in mid-June. The REIT will assume approximately $76 million of long-term, below-market-rate mortgage debt. Centerspace owns 72 properties, consisting of 13,353 homes, in Colorado, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Utah. By moving into Salt Lake City and expanding in Fort Collins, Centerspace continues to evolve as a multifamily REIT focused on the Midwest and Mountain West. The firm is attracted to Salt Lake City's economic base of high-tech, finance, healthcare and education jobs and easy access to plentiful natural amenities, including the nearby Wasatch Mountain range. 'The expansion into the Salt Lake City market furthers our scale in our target geographic exposure while improving our portfolio quality and enhancing our growth profile,' Centerspace President and CEO Anne Olson said in the news release. Centerspace Senior Vice President of Investments and Capital Markets Grant Campbell said the REIT likes the long-term fundamentals of the Mountain West. 'We're going to continue to focus on ways where we can enhance the differentiated offering that we can provide in that region,' he said on the REIT's first-quarter earnings call in May. Campbell said Centerspace was focused on acquisitions with 'attractive embedded financing.' 'It could be potential mezz executions, harder to make development math pencil today, but we continue to have those conversations,' he said. 'We're also talking to folks about potential mezz executions on recaps of existing assets.' To increase financial flexibility, Centerspace exercised the accordion feature of its existing line of credit, expanding the borrowing capacity by $150 million to $400 million. 'We have fortified our balance sheet, enhanced our capital positioning and we'll continue evaluating a variety of new investment opportunities to advance our strategic plan,' Campbell said. Click here to sign up to receive multifamily and apartment news like this article in your inbox every weekday. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Business
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AvalonBay sued for alleged housing discrimination at Washington, DC, property
This story was originally published on Multifamily Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Multifamily Dive newsletter. The Equal Rights Center, a Washington, D.C.-based civil rights organization, has filed a lawsuit against Arlington, Virginia-based housing REIT AvalonBay Communities, alleging that the housing REIT discriminated against tenants with housing vouchers and falsely advertised bedroom counts at its AVA NoMa property. The entities named as defendants in the complaint, filed on June 3 in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, include AvalonBay and its ownership subsidiary for AVA NoMa, Arlington-based Archstone North Capitol Hill 2 LP. AVA NoMa, located in the NoMa neighborhood in Washington, is a 438-unit apartment building that advertises 101 studio, 184 one-bedroom, 96 two-bedroom and 57 three-bedroom units, according to the lawsuit. However, in 47% of the one-bedroom units, 50% of the two-bedrooms and 100% of the three-bedrooms, at least one of the advertised sleeping areas lacks a window, according to the complaint. Under the D.C. Housing Code Standards, a room cannot legally be considered a bedroom unless it has a window or frosted glass that lets in a certain amount of natural light scaled to the size of the room, according to court documents. 'D.C.'s housing code requires windows in bedrooms as a matter of basic health and safety,' said Kate Scott, executive director of the ERC, in a news release. 'The complaint alleges that AVA NoMa skirted this basic requirement, and played fast and loose with its tenants' well-being.' Renters that don't use housing vouchers would not encounter any trouble leasing these units because of their bedroom windows. However, in order for a potential renter with a housing voucher to lease a unit in Washington, the unit must pass an inspection from the District of Columbia Housing Authority. An apartment advertised as a two-bedroom unit with windows in only one of its designated bedrooms would only pass DCHA inspection as a one-bedroom unit, according to the complaint. At that point, the DCHA would consider the rent charged — scaled for a two-bedroom unit — excessive for a one-bedroom, and the voucher holder would not be approved to rent the apartment. In the course of the ERC's investigation, which stemmed from complaints from its clients about not being able to rent at AVA NoMa, the organization found that the property's management may have known about the issue with voucher holders as early as 2020, according to the ERC. When ERC testers called the property to ask about renting with a voucher, the leasing agent told them directly that while vouchers were accepted, they would not be approved for many of the building's units, according to court documents. The plaintiff alleges that AvalonBay violated the District's consumer protection and anti-discrimination laws by falsely advertising its legal bedroom counts and preventing voucher holders from being approved for leases. It also states that voucher holders are actively encouraged not to apply to the property. AvalonBay Communities did not respond to a request for comment from Multifamily Dive. The ERC is asking for a judgment stating that the defendants violated these laws, an injunction requiring them to immediately correct their advertising and any other judgments as the court sees fit, according to the lawsuit. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Apartment developer sees muted impact from tariffs so far
This story was originally published on Multifamily Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Multifamily Dive newsletter. With a vertically integrated development and construction platform that produces suburban apartments, infill projects and build-to-rent homes, Tysons Corner, Virginia-based Middleburg Communities would seem susceptible to the potential impacts of President Donald Trump's recent tariffs. Yet, CEO Chris Finlay, whose firm also owns and manages rental housing, says the effects have been muted so far. When he looked at pre- and post-tariff prices for a project his firm is working on in Florida, he said costs moved less than 1%. 'In short, what we're noticing is a lot of discussion of tariffs,' said Finlay. 'We have not yet actually seen it impact actual pricing on the ground.' Although Finlay has seen some contractors suggest price increases in preparation for tariffs, that's not the case for the majority of the firms that build his projects. 'Most of the subcontractors we work with are fairly confident in their numbers and are excluding tariff risk and locking in numbers without any sort of change for tariffs,' Finlay said. 'Because of the amount of construction we do, 4,500 units or so a year, we are able to lock in bulk purchasing agreements with a lot of vendors and suppliers and material providers.' With tariffs on the horizon, Middleburg has asked each of its suppliers to 'dive into how much is being sourced domestically versus internationally,' according to Finlay. 'It turns out that our total exposure to materials that would be subject to tariffs is really only about 3%,' Finlay said. But tariffs aren't the only thing challenging new construction. Here, Finlay talks with Multifamily Dive about financing, the impact of the Department of Government Efficiency on demand and apartment fundamentals. This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity. We've seen a little more liquidity in the construction market from the bank lenders. I don't know that I would necessarily tie this increased liquidity with the banks to interest rates. The nontraditional credit funds, debt funds and all those folks have really increased liquidity in the bridge market, particularly for pre-stabilized properties. So a lot of people have gone off recourse to refinance their construction loans. The banks, all of a sudden, have a lot of capacity. We've noticed an increase in liquidity for the bank construction loan market. But my understanding is that it is not across the board. We're still finding tightness on the equity side of the equation. There is still a lot of uncertainty. Many investors and institutional capital are still trying to figure out if we have hit the bottom. Should they be buying? Should they be developing? There's still a lot of discussion about supply, although I think that is overdone. But nonetheless, any uncertainty with the institutional guys is just more difficult, and that's what we're seeing today. If you're referring to the federal government cuts, they're more widespread than just Washington, D.C. I'm sure there is some incremental unemployment in a couple of key markets, but we have not seen any impact as a result. Frankly, uncertainty around jobs is better for apartments. People renew leases during those times instead of buying a house, and we are the beneficiaries in some cases. I think it creates more uncertainty for the homebuilder market, but we have not seen anything. These economies are now so diversified. Huntsville, Alabama, is tremendously diversified, and most of that is the private sector supporting the government in mission-critical types of projects. So we haven't seen anything there to note. Washington, D.C., is an incredibly diversified market that seems to be absorbing some of those job cuts so far. I think most of them actually come out in September. I think the big story that is still unfolding is the absorption story. It's just remarkable the resilience in demand for rental housing today. We just continue to see really strong absorption across the board. Everybody talks about the amount of supply, but what I find fascinating is the continued demand for rental housing. Places like Charlotte, North Carolina, are setting records for absorption and continued demand. We're going to see some real rent growth this year, and I don't think we'll see a lot of rate cuts from the Fed. So, it could be an interesting year. The REITs reported strong first-quarter numbers. Are you seeing the same thing in your portfolio? We're definitely seeing that. I think a lot of this economic uncertainty is the fear of tariffs more than tariffs themselves. There's a lot of reaction, and perhaps overreaction, to our current administration's negotiating strategy. The reality is that when things are uncertain, people just hunker down. They're not looking to upgrade or buy a house. We've seen retention and renewal rates that have been higher than normal. Click here to sign up to receive multifamily and apartment news like this article in your inbox every weekday. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Business
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ZRS Management hits 100,000 apartment units
This story was originally published on Multifamily Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Multifamily Dive newsletter. In early May, ZRS Management, the No. 13-ranked operator on the most recent National Multifamily Housing Council Top 50 list, surpassed 100,000 units under management. The Orlando, Florida-based company becomes the 13th firm to pass the 100,000 threshold, according to this year's NMHC annual rankings. ZRS had one of the largest jumps on this year's list, jumping six spots and gaining almost 15,000 apartments from the previous year. ZRS operates almost 350 properties in eight states and the District of Columbia. Over the past decade, its portfolio has grown by approximately 70,000 units — a more than 200% increase. Over the last few years, the multifamily industry has seen several third-party operators, including Atlanta-based RangeWater Real Estate, cross the 100,000-unit threshold, as historically high levels of apartments are delivered and consolidation has hit the management business. In 2020, seven operators claimed more than 100,000 units on the NMHC Top 50. In 2015, only four firms had passed that threshold. For many companies, growth has come through acquisitions or absorbing portfolios of operators who want to exit the management business. For example, in February 2024, Atlanta-based Wood Partners transferred property management operations to Charleston, South Carolina-based Greystar. However, ZRS has avoided making acquisitions and expanded as its clients grew. 'That's really been the most unique part,' President and CEO Darren Pierce, who stepped into the top role at ZRS in January, told Multifamily Dive. 'With the consolidation that's happened in our industry on the third-party side and a lot of groups doing it through acquisition, our growth as an entire organization from day one has always been organic.' Hitting the 100,000 threshold elevates ZRS to being more of a national property management brand. Pierce credits strong retention among its 2,100 employees with fueling the firm's growth. '[Getting to 100,000 units] solely was just a compounding of good behaviors, a compounding of good client relationships and investing in our employees,' Pierce said. 'It's deal after deal coming in and being rewarded by the confidence from all of our owners. It's definitely been a nice milestone.' Though the transaction market has been slower over the last few years, ZRS has picked up management contracts from new clients, some of whom are developers that are keeping projects longer than they anticipated. 'Our growth has been on transactions, and when transactions are happening in our business, we are rewarded by our clients buying new deals,' Pierce said. 'And so a lot of the growth has also come through management changes — companies that have retained their asset, refinanced their asset, and are looking for a new management partner.' ZRS could see its numbers increase or decrease as its clients buy and sell. 'As the market starts to loosen up and our clients start to sell, we could easily drop below 100,000 or pick up some more and exceed 100,000,' Pierce said. 'We've never measured our success by how many units we've managed.' Click here to sign up to receive multifamily and apartment news like this article in your inbox every weekday. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
