Institutional multifamily’s favorite vanity mirror 💄 is the annual NMHC Top Owners ranking, and the just-dropped ‘26 version provides plenty of spice. The country’s biggest landlords took body blows in ‘23 and ‘24, what w/ the Realpage & Yardi antitrust cases making them a political piñata, combined with rates whiplash. Last year, however, proved an opportunity to re-flex the M&A muscles, and we saw some players capitalize on rivals’ weakness to engage in AUM Gobbling ™. 👇

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Bob Faith’s Greystar, w/ ≈ 119K units, retained its top spot, though it slimmed down its portfolio somewhat. (Faith, tho, has been juicing up the fee business – Greystar now manages 1M+ 🚪 😲, nearly 70K up from last year). Morgan Properties, now run by the Sons Morgan, went on quite the buying spree, while also expanding the firm’s credit arm – it added ≈ 14K 🚪 over the year to hit ≈ 110K, helping it leapfrog MAA to the #2 spot (“1 spot to go!” Jonathan Morgan announced on LI – ah, the exuberance of youth). Greg Fowler’s FPA also had a big year, adding north of 10K 🚪 to take 11th place. Steven DeFrancis’ Cortland picked up a 6K 🚪 chunk of Elme Communities, which intends to ride off into the 🌆 . That deal and others (not sure if its takeover of Flow’s busted deals via the pref makes it into the count) propelled Cortland into 7th place (≈ 81K 🚪 ), though it has some selloffs (co-owned w/ JVP stuff, for e.g.) in the works.

Colin 🍎 ‘s Bridge Investment Group, now an Apollo joint, saw modest growth to just shy of 60K 🚪. Looks like NMHC’s ranking now also includes military housing 🪖 , a fascinating niche. Both Philip Rizzo’s Liberty Military Housing (36K 🚪 ) and Chris Hunt’s Hunt Cos. (80K 🚪 ) made it onto the list; both firms have faced scrutiny over living conditions.

Bonus: If you’re in the large multi game, you’ll want to read this guest piece from an exec at one of the landlords that’s a fixture on this list – he provides a blueprint for what the firm of the future may need to look like: Multifamily on Hard Mode 🔒

On Thursday, April 23, The Promote will be hosting an in-depth chat w/ Lightstone Group founder David Lichtenstein, a consummate dealmaker x asset classes. We’ll talk retail money, development, special sits, & a lot more – David is really in the mix. This virtual event is only for subscribers to The Promote Insider, so sign up for that and we’ll send you registration deets.

Monty Bennett is once again getting a lot of grief from his investors, who accuse him of self-enrichment even as the REITs he runs plummet in value. Bennett-controlled asset managers have received $1.9B in payments from the 2 hospitality REITs (Ashford & Braemar), even as their market caps ($19M & $175M respectively) have been incinerated. But Bennett is sticking to his script – the contract is the contract, he says, and as for investors who complain - let them eat Swiss Madrisa 🍰

“The terms of the advisory agreement — including the termination fee — have been disclosed to and approved by shareholders,” Bennett told Barron’s. “Shareholders who acquired shares did so with full knowledge of their structure and its terms.” Bennett’s management cos. now say that if Braemar sells a certain no. of hotels, they are entitled to another $500M. “The problem is basically all the proceeds go to Monty,” Braemar investor Gene Pretti told the publication. “The governance here is just abysmal.” Shareholders have tried to oust Bennett in the past; one activist investor, Alejandro Malbran, said: “If I ever try to do this again, just shoot me.”

If you’re not steeped in the world of Texas business, it’ll be impossible to grasp what an intense & controversial character Bennett is. One story involves him moving a graveyard 🪦 into the path of a pipeline that a water district hoped to route through his 1,500-acre ranch, placing exotic animals 🐆 on the ranch to try and earn federal protection, and bankrolling political candidates who’d be amenable to shifting the pipeline. He won. Per Texas Observer, he also once paid a company to hire actors to stage a fake protest outside of nemesis D Magazine’s office. The “protest” was covered only by the Dallas Express, the newspaper where Bennett moonlights as publisher 🤠

This week on the pod, we chop it up on how God is Smiling Upon Alts: The federal govt has put forward much-anticipated regulation that creates a smorgasbord of investment options for 401 (k)s – w/ major CRE implications. Next, we discuss how Manhattan office has broken the $300/🦶 barrier – twice in a month! And finally, we bust out our Marley Slims & head to Brooklyn, where Orthodox dealmaker Simon Dushinsky's unorthodox Rabsky Group is dominating the development landscape. Plus, our "Punch List" rundown of the newsiest industry happenings: NYC real estate succession with Andrew Chung’s Extell coronation; DHS' in-limbo $38B warehouse purchase plan; and RXR's recap of a prominent office-resi project.

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On Wednesday, Promote Insiders got a handy CRE-focused cheat sheet 🔒 on the Dept. of Labor’s blueprint for opening the 401(k) floodgates to alts. Today, we’ll look at the one explicit carveout: Continuation vehicles