As home and rental prices continue to jump, so has an interest in scooping up apartment rental companies.
Tiffany Bucher of Foreclosure Excess Proceeds reports that Manhattan-based Blackstone Inc. recently acquired Preferred Apartment Communities for the tidy sum of $5.8 billion. The Atlanta-based PAC runs multifamily properties and also makes shopping centers investments.
Home prices in the United States have skyrocketed due to economic recovery and extremely low interest rates.
It’s not the only big deal Blackstone has made in the new year. In January, it purchased apartment owner Resource REIT Inc. for $3.7 billion. Over the past year, Blackstone also acquired apartment owner Bluerock Residential Growth REIT Inc for $3.6 billion., WPT Industrial Real Estate Investment Trust for $3.1 billion, and hotel owner Extended Stay America Inc for $6 billion.
A Big Deal for Healthcare
Two other big real estate investment trusts are joining forces. Two major healthcare REITS, Healthcare Trust of America and Healthcare Realty Trust are merging in a deal worth nearly $18 billion.
The deal creates the largest REIT specializing in owning medical office buildings. Healthcare Realty acquired Healthcare Trust of America for a little over $35 a share.
The result: Healthcare Realty will own 44 million square feet of medical office space and 727 properties, which makes it twice the size of its biggest industry rival.
The deal also means that it will own properties associated with more than half of the country’s top 100 health systems.
W.P. Carey, Corporate Property Associates Merger Moves Forward
Real estate investment trust W.P. Carey Inc has gained approval from its board of directors to enter a merger with Corporate Property Associates 18. W.P. Carey will acquire CPA: 18 for about $2.7 billion.
The move signals W.P. Carey’s focus away from investment management and into more long-term, stable revenue from real estate. It also comes with a large portfolio of self-storage assets.
W.P. Carey is one the largest net lease REITs, with a diverse portfolio including commercial real estate, including office, retail, and warehouse properties throughout the United States, as well as western and northern Europe.
Thomas Park Investments, Artemis Acquires Healthcare Real Estate
Thomas Park Investments is beefing up its portfolio of Mid-Atlantic healthcare real estate through a newly announced joint venture with Artemis Real Estate Partners.
Thomas Park is working with the Chevy Chase-based private equity firm to scoop up $500 million in new property, including a medical office building in Baltimore a medical office building in Columbia, Md., anchored by Johns Hopkins Medical Imaging.
The acquisitions also include a large medical office building in Princeton, New Jersey leased with Princeton Interventional Cardiology and two other anchors.
In a statement, Thomas Park Investments says partnering with Artemis allows the company to be competitive in the increasingly hot medical office market space. Launched in 2019, Thomas Park Investments, based in Annapolis, Md., manages about 500,000 square feet of medical offices and says it is on track to finalize $150 million in acquisitions of medical office buildings in 2022.
Tiffany Bucher Foreclosure Excess Proceeds 