Cottonwood Residential Inc., a private real estate investment trust, has sold a 3,473-unit, 12-property multifamily portfolio to a real estate fund managed by Ares Management L.P. (NYSE: ARES) for approximately $440 million. Ares is a publicly traded alternative asset manager with approximately $121.4 billion of assets under management. The 12 properties were originally built between 1981 to 2006 and are located in Tennessee, Texas, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Eleven of the 12 transactions closed between September 28th and October 9th, and the final sale is expected to close in late October.
Additionally, Cottonwood intends to liquidate five additional properties reportedly valued at approximately $290 million as part of their liquidation plan to redeem 100% of the interests held by the non-voting common stockholders of CRI. Assuming that the five properties mentioned above are sold within the expected market value range, Cottonwood anticipates that the proceeds from the combined asset sales and recapitalization will, when all distributions are made, result in distributions to the CRI non-voting common stockholders of between $18.75 to $19.57 per share in the aggregate. This is in addition to the operating distributions received over the course of the investment and represents significant appreciation over the original purchase price.
The company noted that the proceeds generated from the sales will also be used to repay and redeem interests in Cottonwood held by Cottonwood’s two institutional investors, FrontRange Capital Partners and Equity Resource Investments, and its non-voting common stockholders.
“We’re very happy with the results of the transaction and the exceptional value we believe we’ve delivered to our institutional and common shareholders. Upon completion of these sales, affiliates of Cottonwood will enter a new phase of their business with the intention of pursuing a value-add strategy to enhance the rent levels and net operating income of the remaining assets in the portfolio,” said Dan Shaeffer, CEO of Cottonwood. “Through our affiliates, we also intend to continue investing new capital in select high-quality development opportunities while growing our advisory business.”
Cottonwood Residential sponsors Cottonwood Communities Inc., a non-traded REIT, which launched its $750 million offering in August 2018, as well as two $50 million Regulation A offerings: Cottonwood Multifamily REIT II Inc. and Cottonwood Multifamily Opportunity Fund Inc., which launched in launched July 2017 and November 2017, respectively.