An Arizona real estate investment firm is establishing an East Coast presence with plans to acquire 750 multifamily units in Charlotte by the end of 2024.
Rise48, which focuses on multifamily investment, has chosen Charlotte for its latest expansion. Zach Haptonstall, Rise48 co-founder and CEO, said the firm is hitting the ground running in Charlotte with two properties already under contract. By the end of this year, he said Rise48 plans to have purchased at least 750 units.
Haptonstall said Rise48’s strategy is to go after vintage properties from the 1980s and ’90s with high occupancy and at least 100 units, renovate and update them, then sell for a higher price.
He said the Phoenix-based firm purchases assets expecting to hold them for about five years. The firm’s average hold on the 11 it has sold since launching in 2019 is about 18 months.
“We renovate the interior and exterior to increase revenue and value, then look to sell,” he said. “This is the only thing we do; we’re focused on this one niche.”
Charlotte beat out Tampa, Florida, for the expansion. Haptonstall said Charlotte is a “staple, foundational” market that Rise48 plans to have a presence in long term. He said the market’s high population and job growth, as well as it being landlord-, tax- and business-friendly, made it an easy choice.
“The biggest players in this space are private equity firms, and most have been on the sidelines since Q3 or Q4 of 2022 because of interest rate volatility,” Haptonstall said. “We see that window still open in Charlotte. It’s very competitive, and there are a lot of (property owners) with loan maturities coming up. We can buy assets at 20% to 30% less than they were selling for 18 to 24 months ago.”
The firm is leasing about 2,000 square feet of office space at 6832 Morrison Blvd. in SouthPark. Haptonstall said two employees from Phoenix and two from Dallas are relocating to Charlotte to oversee operations. The plan is to have between 15 and 20 employees in the market by the end of the year, the majority of whom will be on-site property staff.
Rise48 launched in Phoenix in 2019 and expanded to Dallas in 2022. Since then, the firm has completed $2 billion in transactions across 51 assets that total more than 10,000 units.
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