As usual, tax credit syndicators dominate the top of the NMHC 50 Owners rankings. A full five such firms appear on the list before a pure owner, Chicago-based REIT Equity Residential. But this year’s list isn’t the same as past years’: Driven by the tremendous consolidation the industry has experienced since 2012, several new names have vaulted into play.
A series of acquisitions over the past half decade drove Hunt Cos. to the top spot last year. After buying Hunt’s tax credit syndication platform, Alden Torch Financial takes the top spot for 2016 while Hunt falls to No. 18. On the conventional side, newcomer and private-equity powerhouse Starwood Capital Group rode a host of major acquisitions to the 30th slot on the NMHC 50 Owners list. While Starwood amassed its units in some headline-grabbing transactions, Monarch Investment and Management Group (No. 41) quietly collected 8,000 units (if it’s possible to quietly add almost 10,000 units) in the Southeast and Midwest.
In all three of these cases, the theme was consolidation. While REITs pared down their portfolios (or went out of existence altogether) in 2015, these private buyers, fueled by unprecedented investor interest in apartments and a healthy debt market, appeared among the NMHC 50 Owners for the first time. They join 47 other top apartment owners in this exclusive ranking:
| Rank (2016) | Rank (2015) | Company Name |
Units Owned (2016) | Units Owned (2015) | Corporate Officer |
HQ City |
HQ State |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alden Torch Financial, LLC | 191759 | 0 | Alan Fair | Denver | CO | |
| 2 | 3 | PNC Real Estate | 134364 | 130800 | Todd Crow | Portland | OR |
| 3 | 2 | Boston Capital | 129936 | 139934 | Jack Manning | Boston | MA |
| 4 | 4 | Boston Financial Investment Management, LP | 127117 | 120146 | Kenneth Cutillo | Boston | MA |
| 5 | 5 | AIG Global Real Estate Investment Corp. | 124283 | 116247 | Douglas S. Tymins | New York | NY |
| 6 | 6 | Equity Residential | 109540 | 109225 | David J. Neithercut | Chicago | IL |
| 7 | 7 | The Richman Group Affordable Housing Corporation | 107725 | 105375 | Richard Paul Richman | Greenwich | CT |
| 8 | 8 | Enterprise Community Asset Management, Inc. | 103194 | 103181 | Charles R. Werhane | Columbia | MD |
| 9 | 9 | MAA | 79496 | 82316 | H. Eric Bolton, Jr. | Memphis | TN |
| 10 | 10 | AvalonBay Communities, Inc. | 75584 | 73963 | Timothy J. Naughton | Arlington | VA |
| 11 | 11 | Alliant Capital, Ltd. | 74018 | 72168 | Brian Goldberg | Woodland Hills | CA |
| 12 | 13 | Raymond James Tax Credit Funds, Inc. | 67751 | 59039 | Steve Kropf | St. Petersburg | FL |
| 13 | 12 | Edward Rose Building Enterprise | 60453 | 59303 | Warren Rose | Bloomfield Hills | MI |
| 14 | 14 | Camden Property Trust | 59792 | 58948 | Richard J. Campo | Houston | TX |
| 15 | 16 | The Related Companies | 59430 | 53727 | Jeff Blau | New York | NY |
| 16 | 15 | Essex Property Trust, Inc. | 58768 | 56903 | Michael J. Schall | San Mateo | CA |
| 17 | 18 | BH Equities LLC | 55819 | 52044 | Harry Bookey | Des Moines | IA |
| 18 | 1 | Hunt Companies | 52225 | 244451 | Chris Hunt | El Paso | TX |
| 19 | 20 | J.P. Morgan Asset Management | 51861 | 51416 | Allina Boohoff | New York | NY |
| 20 | 19 | WNC & Associates, Inc. | 50800 | 51865 | Wilfred N Cooper, Jr. | Irvine | CA |
| 21 | 30 | Fairfield Residential Company LLC | 50733 | 37095 | Chris Hashioka | San Diego | CA |
| 22 | 21 | UDR, Inc. | 50646 | 50268 | Thomas W. Toomey | Highlands Ranch | CO |
| 23 | 17 | Aimco | 49148 | 52336 | Terry Considine | Denver | CO |
| 24 | 22 | Lincoln Property Company | 49024 | 48705 | Tim Byrne | Dallas | TX |
| 25 | 25 | Balfour Beatty Communities | 48698 | 44797 | Christopher Williams | Malvern | PA |
| 26 | 24 | The Michaels Organization | 48429 | 46662 | John J. O'Donnell | Marlton | NJ |
| 27 | 23 | Forest City Residential Group, Inc. | 47035 | 47884 | Ronald A. Ratner | Cleveland | OH |
| 28 | Prudential Real Estate Investors | 44587 | 40086 | Kevin R. Smith | Madison | NJ | |
| 29 | 27 | Weidner Apartment Homes | 43878 | 41175 | Jack O'Connor | Kirkland | WA |
| 30 | Starwood Capital Group | 42702 | 28843 | Barry S. Sternlicht | Greenwich | CT | |
| 31 | 28 | UBS Realty Investors LLC | 42518 | 40424 | Matthew Lynch | Hartford | CT |
| 32 | 29 | Greystar Real Estate Partners, LLC | 38070 | 39637 | Robert A. Faith | Charleston | SC |
| 33 | 31 | Heitman LLC | 37636 | 34111 | Maury Tognarelli | Chicago | IL |
| 34 | 40 | Steadfast Companies | 34565 | 28709 | Christopher Hilbert | Irvine | CA |
| 35 | 36 | Morgan Properties | 32384 | 31500 | Mitchell L. Morgan | King of Prussia | PA |
| 36 | 43 | Cortland Partners, LLC | 32241 | 25358 | Steven DeFrancis | Atlanta | GA |
| 37 | 33 | Invesco Real Estate | 31744 | 32642 | Michael Kirby | Dallas | TX |
| 38 | 32 | American Campus Communities | 30913 | 32524 | Bill Bayless | Austin | TX |
| 39 | 37 | Westdale Real Estate Investment & Management | 30448 | 30797 | Joseph G. Beard | Dallas | TX |
| 40 | 38 | Sentinel Real Estate Corporation | 29000 | 30000 | John H. Streicker | New York | NY |
| 41 | Monarch Investment and Management Group | 28547 | 20386 | Bob Nicolls | Franktown | CO | |
| 42 | 39 | Bridge Investment Group Partners | 28261 | 28999 | Danuel R. Stanger | Salt Lake City | UT |
| 43 | 35 | JRK Property Holdings, Inc. | 27254 | 31852 | Jim Lippman | Los Angeles | CA |
| 44 | 49 | FPA Multifamily | 26606 | 22800 | Gregory A Fowler | San Francisco | CA |
| 45 | 41 | AEW Capital Management, L.P. | 26262 | 27230 | Jeffrey Furber | Boston | MA |
| 46 | 46 | Alliance Residential Company | 26115 | 23255 | Bruce Ward and V. Jay Hiemenz | Phoenix | AZ |
| 47 | 44 | Southern Management Corporation | 25114 | 25114 | David Hillman | Vienna | VA |
| 48 | 42 | Milestone Management, LLC | 25073 | 25359 | Steve Lamberti | Dallas | TX |
| 49 | 34 | Harbor Group International | 23972 | 32000 | Robert Friedman | Norfolk | VA |
| 50 | 45 | Berkshire Group, LLC | 23845 | 23466 | Alan King | Boston | MA |
