In early 2023 I wrote about the evolution of Atlas, highlighting our transition from JV structures to owning deals without partners, from buying 70’s/80’s vintage assets to focusing on 2000 and newer, and from syndicating deals to raising capital from a mix of HNW, family office, and other private capital sources.
It’s been an eventful ~16 months, so I’m sharing part II of our evolution as a private real estate investment firm.
Everything mapped out in the initial post has come to fruition; our last two acquisitions were 2015 and 2019 vintages deals with no partners, we’re expanding our strategic family-office and HNW capital partnerships and raising our first dedicated vehicle, and we continue to expand the team with a focus on sourcing & execution.
The goal is to buy ~$1B of value-add multifamily real estate in the Southeast over the next ~3 years.
It’s ambitious and having a fund with a clear mandate creates pressure to deploy capital. This is new for us and having such a defined goal creates the risk of publicly failing.
I believe we can accomplish this goal but need to adhere to several principles to be successful.
We must only do great deals, regardless of the pressures to deploy capital.
We believe it is the right time in the cycle to be active, however finding good deals (Atlas deals) in today’s environment is a challenge. We need to create win/win scenarios, find unique stories, be experts at execution, have conviction on markets, utilize our longstanding relationships, and have a differentiated lens. We’re not in the business of buying straight down the fairway marketed deals. That’s not what we do.
We must have an unrelenting focus on the product.
What makes a company great is the motivation to make great products. In our case, the product is matching capital to compelling opportunities, executing uniquely devised value-add strategies, and being great stewards of capital. As we scale, we can’t rest on our laurels. We must always push to innovate.
We must continue to do it our way.
I absolutely love this quote from Sari Azout which is worth re-sharing here.
“A tradeoff occurs every time you get feedback. You become slightly more mainstream, slightly more aligned with the zeitgeist. You become marginally more of an exploiter than an explorer, standing on the shoulders of the giants who conceived the paradigm you’re striving to build upon. This is very effective when you want to align your work with others. But you also stray from the path you were exploring.”
At Atlas, we’re not chasing the latest investment trends. We aspire to build a company that’s enduring. We’re building a firm that doesn’t need to stay active to keep the lights on, a company that can be selective and do nothing when that’s the best course of action.
The key is not knowing if everything will work it – it’s committing a decade plus to making it work.
It’s an interesting and exciting time in the multifamily space. Luckily, we’re not encumbered by legacy portfolio issues, and we possess the desire, infrastructure, and mentality needed to succeed.
The combination of ambitious goals, resilience, and a long-term outlook feels great.
Let’s do this.
