A major Independence Realty Trust shareholder is publicly urging the company not to go through with its planned merger with Centerspace, a transaction that would create a 44,000-unit multifamily REIT. 

Irenic Capital Management, which owns roughly 2% of IRT, believes the plan to merge IRT’s Sun Belt portfolio with Centerspace’s Midwest and Mountain West properties would create a weaker firm, the activist investment firm said in a letter to the IRT board published Tuesday. 

Irenic would instead prefer to see IRT sell itself, and thinks it can find a buyer willing to pay more than 20% of the price at which IRT shares are trading today.

“Combining with Centerspace is destructive to both net asset value and earnings growth,” Irenic management wrote in the letter, adding that the merger would see IRT issuing stock at 26% below the company’s own estimated fair value. 

They also argue that Centerspace is overvalued and that IRT would be weakening its portfolio of Sun Belt assets by broadening its exposure to markets with less positive demographic profiles. Centerspace values itself around $67 per share, but Irenic said the valuation wasn’t supported by the portfolio’s performance. 

“We would treat that $67 figure with a high degree of skepticism given that Centerspace just ran a robust strategic review that concluded in June 2026 and failed to find a buyer for the whole company,” the letter says. “Despite 19 parties signing confidentiality agreements, not a single one made a fully financed bid for the company.”

IRT’s portfolio has a 79% concentration in Sun Belt markets, while all of Centerspace’s portfolio is in the Mountain West or Midwest.

IRT didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday morning. 

The letter points to commentary from IRT management across years' worth of earnings calls talking up the strength of its Sun Belt portfolio relative to the performance of assets in other regions and making pledges that management expected to keep its regional exposure roughly unchanged. Irenic invested in the company because of its Sun Belt exposure and focus, its management wrote.

IRT was trading roughly flat around $14.75 per share in trading Tuesday after sliding by roughly 8% since the merger was announced in September. Irenic believes there are potential buyers in the market willing to pay between $18 and $20 per share to buy IRT.

Irenic acknowledges that the merger agreement prohibits IRT from seeking a buyer but notes that it doesn’t preclude the REIT from accepting an unsolicited buyout offer and essentially asks a buyer to step forward.

IRT and Centerspace announced on Sept. 9 a plan to merge into a massive multifamily REIT with an enterprise valuation of $8.1B. The merger would trade each share of Centerspace for 3.8 shares of IRT, leaving Centerspace shareholders with a roughly 22% equity stake in the combined company.