Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell reached a settlement with the country's largest publicly traded apartment landlord, forcing it to sell two downtown Boston towers following a megamerger.
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Vivmark Residential, the new REIT formed by the merger of AvalonBay Communities and Equity Residential that closed this week, agreed to sell the apartment towers at 1 and 10 Emerson Place as part of a settlement intended to preserve competition in the market, Campbell's office announced Tuesday.
“When real estate companies consolidate market share, it can lead to higher prices, lower quality amenities, and worse lease terms for renters. This agreement protects Boston renters and ensures this merger doesn’t create unlawful market control,” Campbell said in a statement.
The REIT plans to divest the two buildings, which total 444 residential units, and find an “unrelated buyer” for the properties. AvalonBay and Equity Residential agreed to prohibit the “sharing of competitively sensitive information or coordination of pricing and leasing terms” as part of the sale.
The REITs also agreed to uphold their affordability commitments with a $500K contribution to the city of Quincy's Affordable Housing Trust. Vivmark owns and operates six apartment buildings in the city south of Boston.
The settlement comes after the Attorney General's Office investigated the merger and “identified concerns that the proposed merger could substantially lessen competition in the market.”
Equity Residential had planned to convert a 20K SF office portion of the complex into 33 more residential units. The REIT received Boston Planning Department approval for that project in December 2025.
The two companies owned a combined 16,605 apartments in Greater Boston as of late June. AvalonBay had 9,697 units across 39 communities, and Equity Residential had 6,908 units.
The duo reached an agreement to combine in May, setting up the largest REIT merger in U.S. history. The companies have a combined portfolio of 634 apartment communities, with another 11,100 units under construction.
The newly formed REIT began trading on Tuesday with an equity market capitalization of $54B.
