Veritas Investments and Ivanhoé Cambridge have purchased 16 San Francisco apartment buildings for $200M.

We chatted with Veritas CEO Yat-Pang Au, who tells us the firm relies on vertical integration to bring together acquisitions, property management, leasing, construction and other disciplines to seek the best opportunities. Carlyle Group was the seller of the portfolio, which totals about 450 units.

The Veritas and Ivanhoé JV, started in 2014, now holds 45 San Francisco properties in San Francisco's more desirable neighborhoods, such as Lower and Upper Nob Hill, Noe Valley, Russian Hill and Alamo Square. That's 610 Leavenworth above. Many are mixed-use with ground-floor retail and an average of 30 units.

The San Francisco properties fit well into Ivanhoé Cambridge's multifamily strategy of investing in key cities, says Sylvain Fortier, the company's EVP and CIO. The San Francisco Bay Area attracts a mobile workforce, which makes up most of the residents in the JV's apartments, says Yat-Pang.