Regions Southeast | Orlando
JV Snaps Up Whiteco Operating Portfolio for $325M
Aug 29, 2007
By: Barbra Murray, Contributing Editor

Joining forces with Capri Select Income II and an unidentified institutional investor, Capri Capital Partners has acquired the majority of White Residential L.L.C.'s operating portfolio. The new joint venture paid $325 million for 10 multi-family properties in thriving metropolitan markets in five states.

"We had a partner, an extremely large institutional player, who was very interested in these types of apartments," Louis W. Hoyes, Capri president and CIO, told CPN. "The properties are in excellent physical condition. They were all constructed after 2000 by Whiteco." Acounting for an aggregate 2,377 residences, the Whiteco assets are located in Southern California, Denver, Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas and Orlando. In addition to the garden-style communities, the off-market transaction included two development sites that can accommodate 700 more multi-family units. "It was an offering of substantial size; it was geographically diverse and in six major metropolitan markets," Hoyes said, "all of which are densely populated and hive high consumer purchasing power, good occupancy rates, good employment rates, and are forecasted for continued growth." The joint venture plans to capitalize on value add opportunities at the properties, an effort that will be led by Whiteco, which will also handle leasing and management. Although the markets represented in the portfolio are already thriving, the partners anticipate greater demand for apartment units in the future due to an expected increase in the Latino and Asian communities over the next decade.

Indeed, the national apartment market is flourishing. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers' midyear Korpacz Real Estate Investor Survey, demand is on target to strengthen as a result of higher interest rates for homebuyers, and investors will continue to target the sector, even looking to purchases in secondary markets.

Merrillville, Ind.-based Whiteco is a private multifamily development company that engages in the development, construction and operation of institutional quality apartment communities across the country. Before the transaction, the company had assets--representing over $500 million in investments--accounting for 3,000-units, as well as three properties under development, and land to accommodate an additional 1,500 residences in major markets of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Nevada and Texas. Chicago-headquartered Capri is an institutional real estate investment advisory firm that manages approximately $4 billion in diversified assets on behalf of pension fund and other institutional clients. In establishing its CSI II fund, Capri had raised $312.5 million from 20 institutional investors by March of 2005.

 
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