Northland Investment Corp. has done it again. As real estate giant Tarragon Corp. continued its financial decline, recently reporting a $388 million loss and facing Nasdaq delisting, the Newton, Mass.-based firm scooped up 7,433 of Tarragon’s multi-family units in a $2 billion joint venture.
Nearly 4,000 of the new properties are located in Connecticut, where Northland will become the largest apartment owner. The agreement includes the Lofts at the Mills in Manchester with 409 units, Nutmeg Woods in New London with 455 units, and the Woodcliff Estates in East Hartford with 561 units.
The announcement of the joint venture comes on the heels of Northland’s bargain-basement purchase in February of six Tarragon properties — five in Florida and one in South Carolina. The fire sale price of $156 million was about half of the $311.3 million Tarragon paid for the properties less than three years ago.
Tarragon owed $157.1 million on the properties, which it had been converting from apartments to condominiums.
The most recent deal allows Northland to break into the top 50 multi-family housing owners in the country, increasing its portfolio by 50 percent.
Northland will own 77.6 percent of the joint venture, called Northland Properties LLC, while Tarragon will hold 22.4 percent.
The agreement establishes a management company, Northland Properties Management LLC, which will control most of the 21,000 apartment units owned by the two companies. They are part of 83 complexes located in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Florida, North Carolina, Texas, Tennessee and Arizona.
The management company will employ about 600 people at its headquarters in Newton and across satellite offices in Hartford, Texas and Florida.
Separately from the joint venture, Northland also owns the Goodwin Hotel and Hartford 21, a luxury apartment tower, both in Hartford.
Northland CEO Steven Rosenthal said the deal with Tarragon would advance his company’s aggressive growth plans.
“This joint venture increases our access to capital, strengthens our position in several key markets, including Florida and Connecticut, and will provide significant growth and value added opportunities,” Rosenthal said.
