On Monday, Equity Residential (EQR 0.53%) announced it has entered into an agreement to sell 27 residential apartment properties to a joint venture of Goldman Sachs (GS 1.30%) and Greystar Real Estate Partners LLC.
The maximum purchase price based on the value of the assets is $1.5 billion. However, Equity is giving the buyers the right to exclude, or decline to purchase, up to 8% of the assets by value, potentially decreasing the purchase price to $1.38 billion. In order of concentration, the assets in question are located in Washington, D.C., northern New Jersey, Florida, Phoenix, Denver, Southern California, and the San Francisco Bay area.
Equity noted in a statement that it is selling these assets for two reasons: First, to exit "non-core assets" and markets it is less interested in participating in. Second, to raise cash to fund its portion of the Archstone Enterprise LP business Lehman Brothers Holdings is selling. Equity announced it was buying 60% of Archstone in a $6.5 billion deal in November. (AvalonBay Communities (AVB 0.19%) is buying the remaining 40%.)
