Funding Fairfield

Fairfield Residential is moving through its bankruptcy at record speed. The San Diego-based company announced last month that its official committee of unsecured creditors and lender Capmark have signed off on a plan for Och-Ziff Real Estate Acquisitions, an affiliate of New York-based Och-Ziff Capital Management Group, and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) to inject $125 million into the company’s reorganization plan. Fairfield says the investments will allow it to make payments to unsecured creditors, support operations, and even provide the ammunition for future real estate acquisitions once Fairfield emerges from bankruptcy protection. —Les Shaver

Big Apple Buys

Chicago-based Equity Residential continues to add apartments to one of the nation’s largest apartment portfolios. The firm announced last month that it has acquired two high-rise apartment towers in New York City from Macklowe Properties and has entered into a contract to acquire a third tower. The acquisitions, which were made free and clear of debt, include River Tower, a 38-story tower with 323 apartment units; and 777 Sixth Avenue, a 32-story tower with 294 apartment units. Equity expects to close on Longacre House, a 26-story tower with 293 apartment units, by May 1. All told, these three towers constitute 910 apartment units, 23,339 square feet of retail space, and 50,000 square feet of parking space. The properties were purchased for $475 million, which comes out to $470,000 per apartment unit and $545 per square foot of rentable space. The initial cap rate on the combined transaction is 5.52 percent. The properties were purchased with disposition proceeds. —Les Shaver

Easy Pay

Oakland, Calif.-based PropertyBridge has reached an agreement with Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America Merrill Lynch to provide electronic rent payment functionality to Bank of America’s multifamily clients. The deal enables Bank of America to offer PropertyBridge’s automated e-payment solutions to its multifamily clients and fulfills a functionality void that the bank says its clients had been clamoring for. Under the terms of the agreement, multifamily firms banking with Bank of America Merrill Lynch will be provided with PropertyBridge’s payments platform functionalities, which incorporates online, phone, and in-person payments via credit card, check scan, ACH, and electronic check acceptance into one Web-based interface integrated with back-end industry accounting software platforms. Bank of America claims a primary banking relationship with 40 of the 50 largest property management firms in the industry. —Chris Wood

Real Deal

Last month, multifamily software and technology services provider RealPage acquired the Cincinnati-based property management software firm Domin-8. Virtually all of RealPage on-demand services will be integrated into core Domin-8 software platforms over the next six to 12 months. Domin-8 filed for Chapter 11 protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court last September, at that time listing $34.7 million in mostly debt liability versus $1.4 million in assets. The deal marks the latest in a string of multifamily technology sector buys by Carrollton, Texas-based RealPage that sources say are part of a larger strategic positioning as the firm prepares for an initial public offering. RealPage executives had no comment on whether an IPO is currently in the works. —Chris Wood