Top National Multifamily Housing Firm Enters Treasure Valley Market

One of the top-10 multifamily housing firms announced its entry to the Treasure Valley market on Feb. 3. Cortland Partners LLC of Atlanta, Georgia, acquired the Indigo multifamily apartments in Meridian, which it renamed the Cortland South Meridian. The 336-unit apartment community is on 19.5 acres at 1871 S. Spanish Fork Way, just off of Overland Road and spitting distance to the Ten Mile Road interchange off of I-84.

The complex includes studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom units plus high-end amenities including a pool, heated spa, clubhouse with full kitchen, up-to-date gym complex including complimentary group classes, pond and walking trails and complimentary espresso bar and kombucha on tap.

The complex was built in 2020, according to City of Meridian and Ada County Assessor records. The purchase price was not disclosed. The Ada County Assessor’s Office records report a $42.6 million valuation for the land and buildings.

Mike Altman is the chief investment officer for Cortland. He told the Idaho Business Review (IBR) that the firm is looking to expand its properties in Treasure Valley: “For Cortland to deliver on its resident experience, we are really pushing to have a number of properties…four to six properties soon, so that we can have the regional services and an appropriate level of staff and support for those staff and associated members, so we can ultimately deliver that above-and-beyond resident experience that Cortland aims to deliver.”

East Coast Invasion

Cortland is not the first top-10 multifamily firm to invest in Treasure Valley housing. Charleston-based Greystar already manages eight complexes in Boise and Meridian, plus additional multifamily housing in the Panhandle. Greystar is ranked the number-one firm for multifamily housing in the nation, controlling over 146,000 units.

Cortland was in the number-six spot in the November 2020 rankings by Multi-Housing News. At the time the rankings were published, Cortland managed over 60,000 units.

Big-name development firms coming to town is not that unusual, like the storied California development firm, the Ratkovich Company. East Coast capital is also not a stranger to Treasure Valley, like Boston’s Summit Partners with its support of several Idaho-based ventures. A number of things make Cortland’s move interesting. First, the firm is a national leader in its field. It’s a large east coast firm focused on the Multi-family housing. Next, this is Cortland’s entrance into the Idaho market. Last, the firm treats its product as a home and as a residential community, rather than the old Idaho approach of apartments as a place to live while saving up to buy a house. The sum of these characteristics makes this a notable combination for the Boise region.

Cortland’s Idaho Experience

Cortland has been researching Treasure Valley housing for several years. When IBR asked Altman why Cortland decided to come to Idaho and to buy the Cortland South Meridian complex, he described what he called Cortland’s “boots on the ground approach.” First, the decision to choose the Boise metro area was driven by research: “It’s a discipline of first tracking and following data to direct us to new markets that have large population growth, that have solid job growth and have good fundamentals for housing demand. After the data was presented, it said Boise was the number-one market in the country to go see. We then tacked on trips to Boise at the end of our other trips, to Denver, Phoenix, etc.”

After determining Boise could be an area of interest for investment, Cortland took a deeper look. Altman said, “(We) began that boots-on-the-ground approach, which is meeting with people in the business…at one point we had a team of six of us. We broke up into teams of two. The three teams all went and shopped five apartment communities. We all brought back…data and perspective around what the resident experience was like. What was the product? What were they quoting for prices? You can see a lot of these things through databases and internet-based information; but (putting) boots on the ground gives you real time, real experience about what’s available, what the prices are, and what the quality is.”

First time in Idaho

This was Cortland’s introduction for the first time to doing business in Idaho. IBR took the opportunity to ask what it was like for an out-of-state business to enter Idaho and negotiate the business marketplace and regulatory environment for the very first time. Altman said: “I’ve been blessed to enter a number of new markets and new states, and I have to tell you that the experience was welcoming. The experience was so very straightforward and transparent. And I candidly love your city. You know, we’ve had great relationships with all the different industry players…We never felt like we were given bad information or sort of directed otherwise…Our first transaction in Idaho went very smoothly…it seems like a very business-friendly environment.”