Sam Zell Edges Out of Apartments

Sam Zell Edges Out of Apartments

By LAURA KUSISTO
Updated Oct. 26, 2015 7:15 a.m. ET

Sam Zell has agreed to sell more than 23,000 apartments controlled by his real-estate company, Equity Residential, for $5.4 billion to Starwood Capital Group, the companies said.

The transaction, announced Monday, represents about a quarter of the units in Equity Residential’s portfolio of apartments and would be one of the largest since the recession. It also comes on the heels of Blackstone Group LP’s announcement on Tuesday that it is buying Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village in Manhattan for $5.3 billion.

Mr. Zell, 74 years old, is credited for calling the top of the real-estate market in 2007, when he sold another of his companies, Equity Office Properties Trust, to Blackstone for $23 billion, not including $16 billion in debt. Soon after, the commercial-property market crashed as prices fell and debt defaults surged.

This deal is Mr. Zell’s biggest since 2012. Back then, Equity Residential was a buyer. The firm teamed with AvalonBay Communities to purchase apartment giant Archstone for $6.5 billion, not including about $9.5 billion in debt.

Source：http://www.wsj.com/articles/sam-zell-edges-out-of-apartments-1445832247