Lantern Portfolio Makes Record With Its $891M Trade

by Erika Morphy by Globest.com
Recently Lonestar sold its Lantern Portfolio to the locally-based Morgan Properties for $890.5 million. The portfolio has 10 assets and 4,130 units that span Philadelphia and Northern Virginia, making it the largest multifamily transaction in Philadelphia to date, according to Morgan Properties.
The transaction also makes Morgan Properties the largest multifamily owner in Pennsylvania, according to Jonathan Morgan, president of the company, bringing its Pennsylvania portfolio to 9,300 units and its total unit count to 50,000 units. "The Lantern Portfolio transaction solidifies the geographic concentration in two of our core markets of suburban Philly and Northern Virginia,” he says in a prepared statement.

Morgan Properties plans to invest an additional $20 million into renovations and amenity upgrades. It financed the acquisition using internal sources of equity, and by securing long-term, fixed-rate financing, according to principal Jason Morgan.
The company has reached the size that it has through multiple large portfolio acquisitions including the Mark Center Portfolio, a $509 million acquisition in Alexandria, Va., and Chesterfield Apartments and Curren Terrace Apartments, a combined $71 million portfolio acquisition in suburban Philadelphia. Since 2012, Morgan Properties has made over $5 billion in acquisitions for a total of more than 30,000 units, according to Morgan.

The Lantern Portfolio’s Philadelphia assets consist of seven apartment communities totaling 2,346 units. Stonegate at Devon and Villas at Bryn Mawr, both situated in the Main Line neighborhoods of Devon and Bryn Mawr, total 947 units. The remaining five assets, totaling 1,399 units, are located in Conshohocken, West Chester, Downingtown, Jeffersonville, and Bensalem in suburban Philadelphia.

The Northern Virginia sub-portfolio consists of three assets totaling 1,784 units. Mount Vernon Square in Alexandria represents the largest apartment community in the Lantern portfolio, with 1,387 units. East Meadows and Village of Potomac Falls round out the Northern Virginia sub-portfolio. The properties, located in Fairfax and Sterling, total a combined 397 units.
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