Dive Brief:
- Phoenix-based apartment operator MEB Management Services and St. Petersburg, Fla.-based third-party property management and consulting company Weller Management announced on Monday that they merged to become Bryten Real Estate Partners, according to a press release.
- MEB employs 700 people and operates over 27,000 units throughout the Southwest, while Weller employs 450 people and manages close to 20,000 units in the Southeast. MEB has 4,200 units in new developments that will open by mid-2024. Another 5,000-plus new development apartments are under contract for mid-2024 and into 2025.
- Bryten, to be headquartered in Phoenix, will operate nearly 47,000 units across the U.S., including Arizona, New Mexico, Tennessee, Florida, Colorado, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, New York and Texas. That unit count would have placed the firm at No. 37 on the 2024 National Multifamily Housing Council Top 50 Managers’ list.
Dive Insight:
The announcement of the union of MEB and Weller came after months of planning, reorganizing and integrating, according to the press release.
"After more than a year since the merger took place, we are excited to introduce Bryten to the public," Libby Ekre, the founding principal of MEB and now Bryten, said in the release.
Bryten plans to increase its presence in 13 states with a wide variety of products, including mid-rise, garden style, build-to-rent, luxury communities, new developments, student living and attainable housing.
Bryten will have three additional offices in Tucson, Arizona; Denver; and St. Petersburg. The company will be led by Ekre, Scott Cook, Joe Emerson and John Vranich.
The Bryten management team declined to answer questions from Multifamily Dive about expansion plans or motivations behind the merger.
More consolidation
The apartment industry has seen several operators sell or hand over their platforms to larger competitors in recent years. In February, Charleston, South Carolina-based Greystar assumed Atlanta-based Wood Partners’ apartment operations after it acquired the management platform of Scottsdale, Arizona-based developer Alliance Residential in 2020.
In April 2023, Arlington, Virginia-based AvalonBay Communities and Atlanta-based Gables Residential announced that they had entered into an agreement for AVB’s centralized service center to provide back-office financial administrative support services to Gables, which manages and builds apartments.
In March 2023, Altman Management Co. partnered with Atlanta-based third-party residential property management firm RAM Partners to provide back-office management services. AMC, the property management division of Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based developer, builder and manager The Altman Cos., continued to handle resident-facing functions.
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