Multifamily investor Morgan Properties has completed a portfolio transaction to acquire nearly 80 apartment communities across eight states, encompassing about 15,000 multifamily units. This move expands the King of Prussia, Pa.-based company’s portfolio to over 75,000 units across 15 states, making it one of the five largest multifamily owners in the United States.
The 15,000-unit transaction is the first of two between Morgan Properties and Morgan Communities, a Rochester, N.Y.-based company with no relation to Morgan Properties. Morgan Properties has since agreed to acquire an additional 3,000 units from Morgan Communities, expanding its new portfolio to 18,000 units total. The terms of the transactions were not disclosed.
“Morgan Properties prides itself as a turnaround specialist in the multifamily industry, and this portfolio fits our investment criteria given its size, scale, and unique repositioning opportunity,” says Jason Morgan, principal at Morgan Properties. “We target opportunistic multifamily investments and are extremely well positioned to stabilize this portfolio for the greater benefit of the residents, employees, and investors. We assumed property management across the portfolio in July, transitioned more than 750 employees to our team, and are extremely excited to bring this transaction to fruition.”
With this transaction, Morgan Properties has become the largest owner/operator of multifamily assets in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New York.
The portfolio’s assets are concentrated in upstate New York markets, including Rochester, Buffalo, Syracuse, and Albany, and Pennsylvania markets, including Pittsburgh and Harrisburg. Outlier assets in Chicago, Cleveland, Huntsville, Ala., and Memphis, Tenn., have established new markets for Morgan Properties.
“We are extremely proud of our organization for achieving this significant milestone of reaching 75,000 units. Morgan Properties continues to get better with each acquisition, and with growth comes opportunity,” says Jonathan Morgan, president of Morgan Properties. “This transaction establishes us as a top five multifamily owner in the country and the largest in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast region. This year we have acquired over $3 billion in total volume—our biggest year since our founding—and remain bullish on multifamily fundamentals.”
Earlier this year, Morgan Properties was listed at No. 19 in the NMHC Top 50 Owners list, with 50,664 units owned. An estimated 18,000 additional units would raise the company to No. 3 on the 2019 list, with 78,664 units owned.
