Slate buys $226M Sun Belt apartment portfolio

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Number of Properties: Six
Buyer: Slate Asset Management
Seller: ZMR Capital
Property type: Garden style
Units: 1,600
Location: Tampa, Florida; Atlanta; and Phoenix
Total purchase price: $226.5 million

In times of uncertainty, many real estate investors focus on playing defense. Multifamily, which fills an essential need and has limited inventory due to slowing starts, is an inviting target.

“As long as they're well run, you can keep them occupied,” said Peter Tsoulogiannis, partner and chief investment officer at Slate Asset Management. “You can keep growing your rent slowly and steadily. It may not be exciting, but it's very defensive.”

Tsoulogiannis says his Chicago-based investment and management firm executed that  defensive strategy this week when it announced it was paying $226.5 million to acquire 1,600 units of apartments across six properties located around the Tampa, Florida; Atlanta; and Phoenix metros.

Slate is acquiring the portfolio from Tampa-based syndicator ZMR Capital, which will continue to manage the assets. King & Spalding advised Slate on this transaction, which is expected to close at the end of July.

“We're making an equity play where we're in the control piece, and we're keeping the operating partner in,” Tsoulogiannis said.

The six-property Sun Belt portfolio is well occupied and has long-term growth potential through mark-to-market rent increases, according to Tsoulogiannis. The assets were built in the 1970s and 1980s and have undergone renovations in the past.

“The assets are actually performing really well,” Tsoulogiannis said. “With these structures you get into, the fund lives you get into and the maturing mortgages you get into, sometimes the assets just have to change business plans in order to continue.”

Tsoulogiannis said that the properties are situated near grocers and other essential goods and service providers. “For residential to work really well, it needs to be close to all those other essential amenities,” he said.

Slate will continue to invest in multifamily through multiple structures. “We can work with lots of different people, but we want to find good operators who know what they're doing,” Tsoulogiannis said. “If they have control of assets and they need capital to continue to add value to those assets in some way, shape or form, we're open to that.”

Tsoulogiannis believes the multifamily sector is poised to benefit from favorable supply-demand dynamics, an undersupply of new housing and increasing demand for rental options. 

“We hope this is the first of more in this space,” he said.

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