IREI
July 7, 2021
By Andrea Zander
Accesso has launched a multifamily division to invest in rental housing assets in high-growth, housing-constrained markets across the United States.
In establishing the new division, Accesso intends to capitalize on the strong, cycle-resistant fundamentals supporting the multifamily sector, while continuing to advance its strategy of owning and operating high-quality office properties in non-gateway markets across the nation.
Accesso has seeded the multifamily division with two ground-up development projects, including a luxury active adult community in Charlotte, N.C., and a garden-style housing property in Greer, S.C., which is part of the Greenville Metropolitan Statistical Area. The company will partner with local and highly respected developer, Proffitt Dixon Partners (PDP), on both projects. PDP is a multifamily investment and development firm with a focus on class A apartment communities across the Southeast. Since its founding in 2008, PDP has closed transactions valued at more than $1 billion.
Claudio Dombey, founding and managing partner, investor relations for Accesso, said, “We are thrilled to venture into multifamily, an asset class defined by its market resilience and potential for attractive risk-adjusted returns. We’ve been contemplating an expansion into multifamily for some time given the consistently strong demand for housing — which has only accelerated during the pandemic — and we’d been looking for the right investment opportunities and a partner of the caliber of Proffitt Dixon Partners to make the move official. We look forward to leveraging our decades of institutional knowledge and experience to bring compelling, new investment opportunities to our partners.”
The Charlotte project aims to capitalize on the lack of luxury communities catering to the active 55-plus demographic to provide a unique and highly attractive offering. The property will comprise 200 high-end units and approximately 18,600 square feet of interior amenity space, including a grand lobby and clubhouse, a library, a demonstration kitchen, a private dining room, a movie theater and event space, a state-of-the-art fitness center and yoga room, a private courtyard and grilling pavilion, an outdoor living room, a fire pit, and an expansive pool deck and resort-style swimming pool.
The 264-unit garden-style housing property in Greer is poised to benefit from continued population growth in the Greenville/Spartanburg region combined with a severe lack of high-quality rental housing supply. The area is supported by manufacturing and medical industry jobs and is home to numerous campuses for major corporations such as BMW, Michelin and General Electric. Greer’s nearby inland port connects directly to the Port of Charleston, which saw a significant expansion in 2020, contributing to the area’s recent growth.
Alan Garzon, director, investor relations for Accesso, who is spearheading Accesso’s multifamily initiative, stated, “While we continue to be bullish on the office sector and believe in its long-term potential as employees return to the office this year, investing in multifamily provides us with a new avenue to diversify our business. We look forward to helping meet the unmet demand for housing in high-growth regions such as the Southeast, which continue to see an influx of migration from higher tax and cost-of-living states that have resulted in a lack of supply for the high-quality multifamily developments we will be funding.”