Two Apartment Investors Vying For Limited Affordable Supply

Two apartment investors are looking to expand their Atlanta plays, including one with 700 units in its shopping bag.

CiTYR Group just recently entered the Georgia market with Amber Place, a nearly 400-unit apartment project in Warner Robins purchased for $30M (with financing brokered by Eastern Union Funding). But CiTYR managing partner Michael Sabo tells us the fund—which invests money from high-net-worth individuals—is under contract on three apartment projects in Atlanta totaling 700 units. He declined to identify those properties, but says they are typical, urban, garden-style projects that are mainly stabilized.

“We see industry moving there,” he says. “It's a market that we definitely want to focus on right now.”

A year after picking up The Estates at Crossroads, a 344-unit apartment project in Duluth, Orange County-based Passco Cos continues to scour the local market for buys. But being a selective buyer who avoids going lower than a 5% cap rate, it's hard to find product here, says Passco's Colin Gillis (below).

“When you start getting into Midtown and Buckhead and West Midtown,” Colin says, "you typically get into a cap rate that's a lot lower than we are willing to pay."

Instead, Passco is focused on the northern burbs, like Gwinnett County, where job growth remains, but development has been nearly nonexistent on apartments.

Colin also expressed concern that the plethora of apartments racing forward inside the Perimeter could soften rents in the near future, especially since most are chasing renters paying $2.50/SF or more.

“I don't want to see any price war, because you can certainly see that have a ripple effect into other markets,” he says. “But it's a great concern if the rates are going to hold.”