ECI Group Lands $350M Equity Infusion

Less than a week after announcing a $250 million lending platform with Smith Hill Capital and InterVest, ECI Group has received a $350 million equity infusion from Almanac Realty Partners. The closing of both major capital events is expected to fuel more than $3 billion in investment and financing growth over the next three to five years.

Atlanta-based ECI and Almanac, a business unit of global investment manager Neuberger Berman that provides growth capital to private and public real estate companies, have been in talks for more than a decade and believe it is the right time to seize the opportunity to work together based on ECI’s growth and infrastructure as well as their assessment of market conditions.

“As we move into the beginning of a new residential cycle, with the cost of debt stabilizing and operating and construction costs more predictable, we expect to be able to identify excellent multifamily opportunities in high growth Southeast markets,” ECI CEO Seth Greenberg told Multi-Housing News.

The equity capital from Almanac will be used to fund purchases, developments and credit investments within multifamily. ECI will target the acquisitions of newer communities and those built in the 1990s and develop new multifamily properties in the Southeast and Texas. Its investments will be both direct, on balance sheet and through new, project-level joint venture partnerships.

ECI and Almanac have begun deploying capital, including one development in the Southeast. Details were not disclosed at this time about the project.

The Almanac equity transaction was managed by Ted Flagg, senior managing director, Jones Lang LaSalle Securities, LLC, an affiliate of Jones Lang LaSalle Americas, Inc., in collaboration with Roberto Casas, co-head of JLL Capital Markets’ Living Sector in the United States.

Lending platform launched

The Almanac equity investment comes days after Smith Hill Capital, ECI Group and InterVest formed a $250 million private lending platform to provide financial solutions to multifamily owners and operators including first mortgages, mezzanine loans and preferred equity. Target loan amounts are expected to range from $15 million to $100 million and be used for refinancing, new construction and acquisitions.

Brendan McCormick, managing principal at New York-based Smith Hill Capital, told MHN last week that the lending platform has already been deployed. He said the platform has an active pipeline of opportunities and at least two deals in the Southeast that could close during the fourth quarter. Smith Hill Capital, the commercial real estate debt investment management business of the Procaccianti Cos., was formed in December 2022 to invest in debt opportunities that exist because of liquidity challenges and dislocation in the CRE financial markets.

Greenberg noted that the lending platform will provide institutional quality multifamily owners and operators with critical funds for refinancing projects, new developments, construction and acquisitions. He added it will also broaden ECI’s capabilities by allowing it to own, develop, manage and provide tailored financial solutions in the multifamily space.

ECI has a portfolio of more than 7,600 units in 28 properties throughout the Sunbelt and plans to refine and grow that portfolio through acquisitions and its in-house development team, according to Greenberg. He said they see an opportunity for a fully integrated and experienced company to invest in markets with substantial shortages of market-rate apartments of all types.

The company, which has in-house development, construction, investment and property groups, broke ground earlier this year on The Avery Collins Hill, a 300-unit community in Atlanta slated for completion in late 2025, with joint venture partner The Griffin Fund. They also partnered on the development of The Corwyn Conyers, a 300-unit property in Conyers, Ga. ECI is also expected to deliver the first units of Averly East Village in Roswell, Ga., later this year.