Criterion Holdings LLC

Income-Oriented Investment Strategies

Student Housing

Purpose-built student housing, leased “by the bed”, provides a highly attractive multifamily investment option, generally at higher rates of return than market rate rental apartments of comparable quality and at somewhat lower volatility due to the favorable demand characteristics of the property type. The resulting risk-adjusted returns reflect the combined benefits of favorable population demographics and attractive financing options, which often include both long term fixed rates, and extended interest-only periods. Generally, student housing has only a modest value-add component.
Vista Apartments
The Outpost Apartments
Campus Edge Apartments
Raleigh Student Housing Portfolio
Charlotte Student Housing Portfolio

Value Add Multifamily

“Value-Add” (market rate) multifamily investments provide for enhanced total returns as a result of capital improvement-driven increases to net operating income. Typically Class B / C suburban garden apartments, these properties are rented at rates below the competitive set at the time of acquisition, providing an opportunity to increase revenues through kitchen, bath and common area renovations. Often occupied by renters “for life”, rather than renters “by choice”, these properties exhibit less volatility in response to changes in the economic cycle than newly-constructed Class A properties, and are somewhat immunized from new market supply additions since new construction generally tends to be Class A by definition (i.e., no one builds Class C).
Maryland Multifamily Portfolio

Commercial Income Property

Commercial Income Properties are generally pursued only in those instances where the existing property offers either the potential for appreciation through tenant credit up-trend (and resulting cap rate compression), or a “covered land play” providing attractive levels of current cash flow as part of a longer term repositioning or redevelopment strategy.
399 Jefferson Road

Historic Renovation and Adaptive Re-Use

This strategy is currently limited to the Washington, DC submarket where existing rent control laws and a significant supply of older, unrenovated properties combine to create the opportunity for two distinct, highly-differentiated multifamily investment strategies. In the first, older, occupied apartment properties are acquired in concert with organized tenant associations under Washington’s “TOPA” ( Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act) legislation. Working with tenant associations to define a scope of beneficial capital improvements (generally including extensive kitchen, bathroom, and common area upgrades), our operating partner is able to successfully recapture a significant portion of the discount between pre-renovation controlled and post-renovation market rents. In the second strategy, adaptive re-use, older, unrenovated office buildings, hotels, schools, and even hospitals are renovated and converted into new, Class A rental housing at a highly competitive cost basis.
Tilden Hall
American University Portfolio

Senior Living

Our Senior Living strategy is focused on those communities offering a “continuum of care”, incorporating assisted living (AL), memory care (MC), and, at times, independent living (IL) in a single location so that residents and their families may enjoy the comfort of knowing that aging in place is an option available to them. From an investment perspective, in addition to the well-publicized, highly favorable demographics tied to the aging of the Baby Boomer cohort, senior living also benefits from attractive GSE agency financing, providing great flexibility, including long term fixed rates and extended interest-only periods. As with student housing, senior living is currently characterized by an attractive yield premium versus market rate multifamily; this is a result of the significant operating expertise required, a key differentiating factor which limits competition and directly impacts property performance. Ownership of senior living communities continues to be highly fragmented, with a significant number of properties owned and operated by private individuals lacking the economies of scale and management expertise which our operating partner network provides. Through its focused value-added investment strategy, experienced team, operator relationships, and transaction structuring capabilities, Criterion Senior Living brings institutional scale and efficiency to the ownership and operation of quality senior communities, delivering improved results for residents and investors alike.

Please contact us for information regarding pending acquisitions.
CRITERION HOLDINGS, LLC
1340 Smith Avenue, Suite 200, Baltimore MD 21209. 410-336-1228