Vivmark Residential, the combined company resulting from the largest REIT merger in U.S. history, plans to launch Tuesday with an enterprise value of $70B.
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AvalonBay Communities and Equity Residential each brought more than 300 apartment communities to the merger, creating a portfolio of 634 communities and more than 184,000 units across the U.S.
This makes Vivmark the largest U.S. apartment REIT by far, and another 11,100 units are under construction.
Mid-America Apartment Communities comes in second, with 105,000 apartments, followed by Essex Property Trust’s 62,000, according to a Vivmark investor presentation, which cites a peer average of 71,000 units.
Vivmark Residential will start trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday with an equity market capitalization of about $54B.
“Our wider management team of Vivmark officers is now fully in place, and we are ready to deliver a seamless Day 1 experience for our residents,” Vivmark CEO Benjamin Schall said in a statement.
Schall was CEO of AvalonBay. Stephen Sterrett, a former Simon Property Group executive and lead trustee for Equity Residential, is chairman of the Vivmark Residential board.
“Vivmark represents a transformational opportunity to redefine the rental housing industry, utilizing our scale and capabilities to deliver superior value for shareholders,” Sterrett said in a statement.
The combined company said it is creating one of the industry's most efficient operators and expects $125M in synergies over the next 18 months, with $50M in savings from corporate overhead and $65M from property management overhead.
The REITs’ combined investments in artificial intelligence, automation and centralized services should drive margin expansion, the presentation says.
Both firms began using property management solution EliseAI in 2019 and now use AI to drive 90% of prospect workflows, according to a May presentation filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Vivmark has 11,100 units under construction, with a projected total capital cost of $4.4B. There are another 9,900 units in the development pipeline, with a projected total capital cost of $4.2B, according to the presentation shared Monday.
About 50% of the projects include affordable and mixed-income components.
Reports emerged this spring that AvalonBay and Equity were discussing a combined company following a rough 2025, in which heavy new supply delivered and expenses outpaced operating income.
A wave of consolidation has swept the commercial real estate industry as companies seek scale and operational efficiencies, leading to about $28B in CRE acquisitions in the first quarter, including several REITs.
Last week, GO Residential REIT became Canada's second-largest publicly traded residential REIT after absorbing a portfolio of properties as part of the acquisition of Canada's H&R REIT. That group of buyers also included Blackstone Real Estate.
