Fairstead Kicks Off Investment Platform with Portfolio Buy

Village Mirage Apartments, one of the properties in the portfolio. Image courtesy of Fairstead

Multifamily owner and operator Fairstead (formerly known as Fairstead Capital) has launched a new investment vehicle aimed at affordable housing properties across the U.S. With its first acquisition, the firm paid $160 million for a 1,568-unit portfolio from The Hampstead Cos.

The 16-property portfolio is spread throughout California, Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, South Carolina and Maryland. With the purchase, Fairstead’s footprint expands to 14 states and more than 11,500 rental units in mixed-income, affordable and market-rate properties.

Fairstead’s portfolio buy and platform launch comes two months after the firm’s subsidiary, Fairstead Affordable, purchased 214 affordable apartment units in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City for $75.5 million.

The company, which declined to disclose addresses of the properties in the portfolio, plans to undertake renovations on properties throughout the portfolio. Will Blodgett, co-founder & partner of Fairstead, told Multi-Housing News with the investment platform, they are “mostly looking for scale,” and are open to any market in the U.S.

“We started an investment vehicle specifically targeting affordable housing GP interest deals and this transaction was the perfect situation for us,” said Blodgett of its first acquisition. “Hampstead was going through a corporate restructuring and wanted to sell the majority of their assets. We liked the geographic diversity and scale.”