ATLANTA AND FORT WORTH, TEXAS — Cortland Partners has continued its expansion in the multifamily sector with the purchase of five apartment communities totaling 2,237 units throughout the Atlanta and Dallas areas for $244 million.
The apartment communities purchased include: the 360-unit Coventry at Cityview in Fort Worth, Texas; the 406-unit Promenade at Peachtree in Chamblee, Ga.; the 360-unit Lexington Farms in Alpharetta, Ga.; and the 268-unit Longwood Apartments in Decatur, Ga. Equity Residential sold Promenade at Peachtree, Lexington Farms and Longwood.
The Atlanta-based multifamily investment firm also purchased the 843-unit Idlewylde Apartments in Duluth, Ga., from Associated Estates. Idlewylde was built in two phases, and Cortland intends to market the project as two separate apartment communities.
The acquisition is part of Cortland’s strategic investment plan to expand its multifamily portfolio, which has grown from 1,900 apartment units to almost 13,000 in the last three years. “We have improved our economies of scale in Texas with the addition of Coventry at Cityview in Fort Worth, enhanced our allocation in the Atlanta market, which is poised to outperform the national economy, and continued to evolve the capital structure of the firm,” says Steven DeFrancis, CEO of Cortland Partners.
Debt capital for the transactions was provided by Freddie Mac, through Walker Dunlop, in the amount of $75.8 million, and through a $107.1 million loan commitment led by Ares Commercial Real Estate Corp.
The firm also funded the acquisitions in part through equity provided by its new alliance with two unnamed institutional capital partners. The alliance provides Cortland with a total of $200 million of equity capital to acquire multifamily communities in selected markets throughout Texas and the Southeast. The five apartment properties recently purchased in Texas and Georgia were the first investments made by Cortland after the alliance.
Cortland plans to invest in various interior and exterior upgrades to the purchased communities consistent with its value-add investment strategy. “We have $140 million of equity capital for future investments through this new equity capital alliance. We are actively seeking investments that meet our value-creation criteria throughout our targeted markets,” says DeFrancis.