Dive Brief:

• Developer Eden Multifamily has formed a joint venture with real estate investment, management and development company Great Neck, New York-based Sterling Equities to expand its Southeastern housing platform.
• Miami-based Eden, founded in 2015 by industry veterans Jay Jacobson and Jay Massirman, currently has 1,130 units throughout central and South Florida under development, including Eden Crystal Lake in Port Orange, Florida (pictured above). The company’s 2022 construction starts total more than $750 million and are expected to exceed $1.2 billion by mid-2023. The joint venture will target 2,500 starts per year in markets throughout Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee, Jacobson told Multifamily Dive.
• Sterling Equities, founded in 1972, is the vertically integrated real estate investment, management and development company of the New York City-based Katz and Wilpon families, who were better known for owning a majority interest in the New York Mets before selling to Steve Cohen in 2020. 

Dive Insight:

The partnership between Eden and Sterling Equities brings together principals and organizations with more than a century of experience in the apartment sector. Between them, Jacobson and Massirman have a combined 70 years of experience working in the industry. 

Jacobson had stints at Stiles Residential Group in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Atlanta-based Wood Partners, Goldman Sachs Real Estate Services (formerly known as Archon Group) and Denver-based Archstone Communities Trust. Massirman served as founder and CEO of Miami-based Rivergate Companies and spent more than 20 years at CBRE.

Jacobson has known the principals of Sterling for more than 20 years, he tells Multifamily Dive.

“Partnering with Sterling Equities is a pivotal endorsement of everything Jay and I have worked on over the last seven years,” Massirman said in a press release shared with Multifamily Dive. “It also puts us in position to address the glaring need for multifamily housing solutions in high-growth markets at an even greater scale.”

Sterling Equities has developed or invested in more than 65,000 residential units over the past half-century and is actively acquiring and developing multifamily communities, including in South Florida. The company has a long-term relationship with Jacobson and Massirman, according to partner Todd Katz.  

The Katz and Wilpon families faced financial challenges stemming from their association with financier Bernie Madoff, who went to jail for an elaborate Ponzi scheme before dying in 2021.

Southeast expansion

With the backing of Sterling Equities, Eden will bring its multifamily communities that serve a wide range of economic sectors to more cities. The company, set to open a regional office in Charlotte, North Carolina, seeks out multifamily development opportunities in neighborhoods that are underserved and overlooked, specializing in boutique infill projects. 

“This exciting partnership with Sterling Equities will allow Eden to continue our unparalleled growth in a thoughtful fashion, drawing upon Sterling’s 60-year history of investing in – and developing – residential, commercial and industrial properties throughout the country,” Jacobson said in a press release. “The partnership will utilize Sterling’s extraordinary financial strength, investment experience and knowledge.”

The Southeast, a main target of the joint venture between Eden and Sterling Equities, experienced tremendous growth during the COVID-19 pandemic with a net domestic migration of 657,682 from 2020 through 2021, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

As people moved into these southern markets, rents have risen. In February, Florida boasted eight of the top 10 markets for rent growth, according to RealPage. Cities like Atlanta, Nashville, Knoxville and Memphis have also seen rent growth above 13% during the pandemic, according to RealPage.

“Rent growth remains most significant in high-demand Sun Belt markets that have only seen substantial income growth among renters,” wrote Jay Parsons, vice president and deputy chief economist at RealPage, in a recent article on the company’s website. 

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