The Milestone's Group latest apartment deal has just gone under contract: the 560-unit Villas at Shadow Creek in Houston's Pearland submarket, a prime example of the kind of deals the firm is chasing, says managing partner Jeffrey Goldberg (snapped on the Atlantic City boardwalk with 12-year-old Jake and 5-year-old twins Riley and Logan). The Bisnow Multifamily Annual Conference speaker tells us there's too much capital going after deals in gateway cities, so Milestone Group's looking in supply-constrained, mature secondary markets. “Since we have different pockets of capital, including a publicly traded REIT, we have the flexibility to buy stabilized deals that are excellent long-term plays, as well as the value-add deals ripe for upgrading that lend themselves to shorter-term holds," he says.

Above, the Villas at Shadow Creek, now part of the firm's 36,000 owned and managed apartment units across the US. Other recent Milestone deals include the 384-unit Legacy Heights in Denver; the 424-unit Osprey Links in Orlando; and the 316-unit Harbor Creek and 346-unit Preston Pointe, both in Atlanta. Milestone Group's focus, he says, is on the "smile states," so he's paying particular attention to the Mid-Atlantic, Carolinas, Florida, Nashville, Texas, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, and Denver. Milestone is also looking at Midwestern markets because of the energy and manufacturing revival there, he says. Come the weekend, Jeffrey shifts from acquisition mode to days filled with soccer, baseball, and cross-country with the kids.