Fresh on the heels of its blockbuster archstone deal, Equity Residential agreed last month to sell $1.5 billion worth of assets to a joint venture between New York–based Goldman Sachs and Charleston, S.C.–based Greystar. The move to sell 27 properties will help finance the Archstone acquisition and also frees the Chicago-based REIT of assets in markets it’s trying to exit.
The bulk of the sale’s properties, more than 2,000 units, are in Washington, D.C., and northern New Jersey. The approximately 6,000 remaining apartments in the transaction are located in Southern California, the San Francisco Bay Area, Florida, Denver, and Phoenix. The properties are valued at about $187,000 per apartment, and the deal has a blended cap rate in the mid–5 percent range.
Equity granted both parties the right to exclude up to 8 percent of the value of the assets from the purchase. The companies have also waived their due diligence contingency after placing $150 million in escrow.
The Archstone deal, worth $6.5 billion in cash and stock, is expected to be completed in two separate closings during the first quarter of 2013.
