Berkadia Broker Launches Firm To Buy D.C. Apartments While Others Flee

While some multifamily owners are rushing for the exits in D.C. due to difficult market conditions and local regulations, Cameron Webb is swimming against the tide — launching a new investment firm with plans to buy apartments in D.C. at discounted prices. 

Webb, who spent the last five years brokering apartment sales at Berkadia and six years at Marcus & Millichap before that, left Berkadia in May to start Webb Ventures, he told Bisnow in an interview. Last month, he closed on his first acquisition, the 44-unit Suncrest Apartments in Prince George's County. 

The 33-year-old said the investment side of the business has always appealed to him, and he amassed his own multifamily portfolio totaling 140 units by making personal investments on the side while he was a broker. Given that he made all of his brokerage earnings on commissions, the slowdown in deal volume caused by high interest rates made now a logical time to leave the job and focus on investing full time. 

“There was a lull in the market, and from a timing standpoint, if you’re going to do it, now’s the time to do it,” he said. “Because once the market picks back up and a lot of velocity starts happening, it’s harder to leave.”

His first acquisition was a joint venture with Baltimore-based MCB Real Estate and D.C.-based Ernst Equities. MCB, led by David Bramble, has $3B in assets under management and is redeveloping Baltimore's Inner Harbor. The firm made the investment as part of its initiative to help younger real estate entrepreneurs access capital. 

“As institutional investors seek new sources of return, they are increasingly recognizing the benefits of investing with small, emerging, and diverse managers,” MCB President Gina Baker Chambers said in an emailed statement. “And likewise with MCB, investing in Suncrest Apartments is not just about financial returns; it’s about recognizing and unlocking the potential in small and emerging entrepreneurs.”

The Suncrest Apartments property sits at 5225-5331 Marlboro Pike in Capitol Heights. Webb said the property is 20% vacanct and the prior owner was dealing with distress, so the $5.2M sale represented a discount to the typical price in the market. 

Ernst Equities founder Felipe Ernst, who has a portfolio of 850 units across 30 properties, said he identified the property and then brought Webb in as a joint venture partner to buy it.

The two have had a client relationship and friendship for years, and Ernst said he wanted to help Webb do his first deal. Plus, he wanted Webb to help him source more equity for it — he brought MCB to the table. 

“[Webb]'s more than well-versed and equipped given his network and his knowledge of the market to be a successful real estate player in this market, and I’m excited to see his future and his growth and to continue to partner with him on deals,” Ernst said.  

The two have a pipeline of more than $60M in D.C.-area multifamily properties they have put under contract and are working to close as joint venture partners, Webb said. MCB also plans to have an ongoing partnership with Webb and Ernst and to put equity behind some of their acquisitions. 

“We’ve seen tremendous value in this partnership," Chambers said in her statement. "Webb Ventures and Ernst Equities have the energy, focus, and creative drive needed to optimize the performance of this asset. By working together, we’re able to transform properties into high-performing assets, and we look forward to future opportunities to collaborate and drive even greater success.” 

Webb is looking to do deals across the DMV, from Baltimore to Richmond to Virginia Beach, but his main focus is inside the Beltway, including in the troubled D.C. market. He said today is an appealing time to be a buyer in D.C. because many other owners are looking to sell, and the market is full of discounts. 

A confluence of issues in the District — rising rent delinquencies caused by a slower pandemic-era eviction process, along with soaring operating costs for landlords — has made many apartment buildings unprofitable and has led some owners to try to offload their portfolios, Bisnow first reported last week. 

“Right now, we’re at an interesting place in the market in D.C.” Webb said. “You have a lot of groups trying to get out because the regulatory risk is very real in D.C., so you have groups that are scaling back.

“If you make a deal make sense today, in this market, with all these factors going on that we can’t control and are not in our favor, and if the deal still makes sense, then we should be doing those deals all day long because I think this market is going to get better,” he added. “I have faith that leadership is going to hear and see the issues that are going on and start to make some adjustments on how to make D.C. a better place to invest.”

Ernst also sees now as a smart time to buy apartments in D.C. In February, he paid a combined $7.6M for two Anacostia properties and one Adams Morgan building, and in July he paid $6.8M for a building near the H Street Northeast corridor after the prior owner went into foreclosure. 

“I’m trying to capitalize on where we are in this cycle by buying generational real estate at a discounted price given interest rates and low competition,” Ernst said. “I think now’s a fantastic time to buy in the District of Columbia in hopes that the council can fix these monumental issues we’re dealing with.”