TDK Kickstarts $192M Portfolio in the Southeast

Vintage Gateway. Rendering courtesy of TDK

Adding to two projects currently underway in Texas and Oklahoma, TDK has started construction on a quartet of luxury apartment communities in Florida, Kentucky and Tennessee with a total value of $191.5 million. The projects will add 1,017 units to the company’s Southeast housing portfolio.

The newly-begun projects are Vintage Amelia Island in Amelia Island and Vintage Destin in Destin, Fla.; The Ivy in Louisville, Ky.; and Vintage Gateway in Murfreesboro, Tenn. 

“The multifamily market continues to be very strong,” Kent Ayer, president of TDK, told Multi-Housing News. “The demographics nationally are exceptionally robust, and residents prefer to rent rather than own in a lot of these markets. We target markets with a lot of population and job growth, which we believe the Millennials will be attracted to and migrate to. We really try to target cities in the Sunbelt. That’s where the strongest economic and growth trends are occurring.”

The other two developments in Dallas, Texas and Bartlesville, Okla. started construction one year ago and will create another 1,001 units at a combined value of $210 million.

Overcoming hurdles

In launching the four projects, TDK needed to overcome NIMBYism in some markets. “In Amelia Island, we had a three-year zoning battle. A lot of the local people don’t want apartments in their back yard,” Ayer told Multi-Housing News. “In addition to building costs, the other challenge is entitlement, which is basically zoning. To get areas zoned for apartments in attractive areas, you must overcome a lot of push back. That’s a huge barrier to entry for our product.”

While augmenting the four projects that just broke ground and continuing work on the other two communities in Texas and Oklahoma, TDK plans a groundbreaking this summer on a transit-oriented development in Mount Juliet, Tenn., where commercial property is also garnering interest.

The new southeastern projects continue the company’s theme of what it calls “elevated living,” company CEO Tim Keach said in a prepared statement. “They offer a different look and different feel from anything else in their location’s marketplace and meet the desire of Millennials and Baby Boomers for a modern, convenience and comfortable lifestyle.”

In addition to that, the company is looking to place available capital in high-barrier markets that boast strong population and job growth. “That available capital helps us overcome the challenges of zoning and increasingly high construction costs. Those building costs would have shut down a lot of projects in other cycles. But right now, the abundance of capital due to all the positive demographics has allowed us to get projects financed, even with rising construction costs,” Ayer told MHN.