Commercial/Multifamily News Briefs Oct. 13, 2022
Merchants Capital Closes $180M Multi-Investor Fund to Support Over 2,400 Affordable Homes in 12 States
Merchants Capital, Carmel, Calif., closed Merchants Capital Tax Credit Equity Fund X, L.P. the company’s second and largest national multi-investor fund with a total capital raise of $180 million from 15 institutional investors.
Merchants Fund X will infuse equity into 18 affordable housing properties that will create or preserve more than 2,400 affordable homes in 12 states.
The 18 properties included in Merchants Fund X are in California, Texas, North Carolina, Connecticut, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Mississippi and Oregon.
“With an average rent discount to market of 34%, the affordable homes supported by Merchants Fund X offer families a meaningful boost in quality of life that would not be possible without the creativity, dedication and hard work of our investor and development partners,” said Julie Sharp, Executive Vice President at Merchants Capital.
“With more than $30 billion in capital provided to multifamily housing since inception, our company has emerged as a leading debt and equity provider for affordable housing across the United States,” said Linda Hill, Executive Vice President of Tax Credit Equity at Merchants Capital. “We remain focused on financing quality, safe affordable housing through a variety of debt and equity executions across the United States.”
Blackstone Completes $3.6 Billion Acquisition of Bluerock Residential Growth REIT
Blackstone, New York, acquired Bluerock Residential Growth REIT Inc. for $24.25 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at $3.6 billion.
Bluerock also completed the previously announced spin-off of its single-family rental business into an externally managed real estate investment trust, Bluerock Homes Trust, Inc., which began trading on the New York Stock Exchange American last week.
Barclays and Wells Fargo Securities LLC served as Blackstone’s financial advisors and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP as Blackstone’s legal advisor. Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC and Eastdil Secured LLC served as Bluerock’s lead financial advisors with BofA Securities also serving as an advisor. Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, KVCF, PLC, and Vinson & Elkins, LLP served as Bluerock’s legal counsel.
Savills Forms Strategic Alliance with Integrative Partners
Savills, New York, entered into a strategic alliance with Integrative Partners, a certified minority- and women-owned business enterprise and commercial real estate services firm founded and led by Shawna O. Menifee, a 25-year industry veteran.
The alliance with Savills will allow IP to benefit from Savills global platform and will enable Savills to leverage IP’s wide-ranging relationships with its national network of minority and women-owned suppliers.
Menifee founded IP in 2005 to address supplier diversity initiatives on behalf of Fortune 500 companies, government entities, city agencies and institutional owners across the country.
Since its founding, IP has built a national network of certified minority and women-owned commercial real estate-centric businesses: a collection that includes top-brokerage professionals, architects, engineers, and legal counsel. IP provides a single source for companies seeking diverse real estate service providers for multimarket initiatives and acts as the liaison and trusted advisor on every transaction.
