PPR Capital Management just began investing in the build-to-rent housing sector last year, and now it is looking to pounce on a market it sees as benefiting from the new federal housing law. 

The Wayne, Pennsylvania-based firm this week is launching the PPR Keystone Housing Growth Fund, its first-ever fund focused on build-to-rent housing. PPR executives tell Bisnow it has a fundraising target of $100M. 

Courtesy of PPR Capital Management

A build-to-rent property PPR acquired in the Nashville metro area

The fund is designed to buy build-to-rent communities from the developers that constructed them. This type of sale was ultimately allowed by the 21st Century Road to Housing Act after months of debate over a proposal that would have required these types of homes be sold to individual buyers. 

The lengthy period of uncertainty froze the BTR market and caused financial distress that PPR is looking to capitalize on.

“There’s a lot of product available across the markets we’re targeting that has been built to rent but that the builder, their original take-out isn’t there anymore,” PPR Chief Asset Officer Craig Johnsen said. “So we are targeting build-to-rent properties, but also taking the development risk out of there and buying from distressed sellers.”

He named 10 regions the firm is targeting: Dallas, Salt Lake City, Nashville, Charlotte, Philadelphia, Chicago, Raleigh, Denver, West Palm Beach and Richmond. 

The fund is raising money from accredited individual investors, and its minimum check size is $50K. It is looking to buy properties with between 150 and 250 units, and with its $100M fundraising target, Johnsen said he anticipates that would yield six to eight deals. 

Founded in 2007, PPR is a private equity firm with $1.5B in assets under management. It has historically focused on acquiring nonperforming loans and residential mortgages. The firm began buying some multifamily in 2022 before entering the BTR sector last year. 

Johnsen said there were distressed BTR situations popping up early last year even before Congress disrupted the market. An overbuilding of units in some markets made it impossible for some developers to achieve the rents they needed to hit their return projections. 

An estimated 68,000 build-to-rent housing units began construction in the U.S. last year, according to the National Association of Home Builders, below the 2024 peak of 84,000 units but above most other years this century. 

BTR housing starts soared after the pandemic and became a larger share of the single-family housing market.

Some developers that have been unable to hit their rent projections have decided to cut their losses and sell, Johnsen said. 

This was the case for the first BTR deal PPR closed in March 2025: the $87M purchase of the Highline at Knoxville in Tennessee.  

“That happened to be one where the first phase of construction was totally complete and the second phase was underway, and they were looking to get out of the deal — they could see how the economics were going,” Johnsen said. 

While these conditions existed early last year, the lengthy Road to Housing debate made it much more difficult for BTR developers to sell their assets, as prospective buyers didn’t know how the rules for the market would be rewritten. 

Now that the bill became law Saturday at midnight — without President Donald Trump’s signature — the market appears ripe for a rebound. Hunter Housing Economics President Brad Hunter told Bisnow this week that BTR “could absolutely be one of the biggest winners” of the legislation.

Johnsen described the BTR market as being “over the hurdle.”

“We’re not anticipating any additional headwinds from a regulatory standpoint for build-to-rent going forward,” he said. “So that makes it a great time, especially given one reason a building might be under distress or needs capital to take them out was because of this three- to six-month period where there was a pause.”

Much of the debate over the bill had centered on lawmakers’ concerns about large companies buying up single-family houses and pricing individuals out of the market. The law ultimately kept some restrictions for institutional investors buying single-family homes, but it included a carve-out for build-to-rent properties. 

Developers that built single-family home projects intentionally for renters did so with the plan of ultimately selling to another landlord, rather than individuals, so Johnsen said the economics wouldn’t work for them to sell homes one by one.

And he said these properties don’t present an attractive investment for homebuyers compared to renting, given the elevated interest rates and homeownership costs like association fees and maintenance. 

“The levered return on buying a townhome for a homeowner is not actually good anymore,” he said. “When I look at it in terms of PPR wanting to supply housing to people, it’s more cost-effective for a company like ourselves to experience economies of scale.”

While PPR isn’t building new housing with this fund, Johnsen said allowing developers to exit their prior projects frees them up to build more.

More build-to-rent housing is needed across the country because Americans are increasingly renting for longer periods of their lives, but some still want the comfort of a single-family home with a yard. 

This creates strong demand for BTR housing, and Johnsen said he doesn’t see that changing anytime soon. He said that is part of why PPR decided to focus on BTR with its new fund.

“Going forward, rents in build-to-rent properties — or properties that mimic single-family housing, whether it’s a townhome or detached single-family — are going to significantly outperform rents at your more traditional garden-style, podium-style multifamily property,” he said. 

“But right now, especially given some of the supply surges that have happened in these Sun Belt markets, that’s not really reflected in their valuations,” he added. “So we think there’s a great opportunity for our investors to get in with relatively low downside.”

BLDG Real Estate and The Fellowship Family closed on $100 million in financing for the 205-unit Fellowship Wildlight in Nassau County.

The Jacksonville Business Journal reports the financing team for the venture includes Peachtree Group, Florida Development Finance Corporation, Farmers & Merchants Bank, a Greystone fund and Promus Realty.  

Fellowship Wildlight will be located within Rayonier’s 24,000-acre Wildlight community and will have eight cottages, 24 memory care units, 48 assisted living units and 125 independent living units.

The project team for Fellowship Wildlight includes Elkins Construction as general contractor, Stewart & Conners as the architect.

This marks the third Fellowship senior living community in Northeast Florida. BLDG Real Estate and The Fellowship Family acquired and repositioned a 43-unit senior community, Fellowship Amelia Island, in April 2025. In August 2025, The Fellowship Family and BDG Real Estate acquired Fellowship Cove at Marsh Landing, a 101-unit community in Ponte Vedra Beach.

Hoar Construction broke ground on Icon Tallahassee, a nine-story multifamily community serving students at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida. Hoar is serving as the general contractor on the more than $100 million project, developed by Park7 Group and slated for completion in the fall of 2028.

Icon Tallahassee will house 804 beds across one-bedroom studios to five-bedroom apartment layouts. Amenities will include a club room, study lounges, below-grade parking, bike and scooter storage, and a fitness center with a yoga studio. Icon will feature a rooftop pool deck lounge with views of Doak S. Campbell Stadium. 

Additional project partners include Boarman Kross Vogel Group, Inc. as architect.

Hoar continues to expand its portfolio in Florida, with over $750 million in projects completed within the state over the last five years. In 2024, Hoar completed construction on Cordelia, a 12-story, 240-unit multifamily community in Sarasota.

The Clear Blue Co., Urban Campus and Core and Born Again Church have raised over $100 million from numerous sources to start construction on Northview Housing Development, a 254-unit affordable senior housing community in Nashville. STG Design and Thomas & Hutton serve as the main architects, while Bacar Constructors is the general contractor.

The affordable project is scheduled for completion in December 2026. Upon delivery, Northview Housing will cater to seniors earning between 40 and 80 percent of the area median income. The development is rising at 876 W. Trinity Lane on Born Again Church’s campus in the Haynes-Trinity neighborhood just outside Nashville.

Financing includes $43.9 million in tax-credit equity and $53 million in multifamily tax-exempt bonds provided by The Tennessee Housing Development Agency, as well as a $19 million loan from Amazon’s Housing Equity Fund.

Common-area amenities are set to include a fitness center, a rooftop deck, restaurants, a health clinic, a pharmacy, a salon walking trails and recreational spaces.

AEW Capital Management acquired the Wellington Bay senior living facility for $100.13 million. The town is just west of West Palm Beach.

Commercial Edge reports Area Management and ZOM Senior Living sold the 749,488-square-foot senior facility at 2590 Wellington Bay Drive to AEW Capital Management. The buyer assumed the seller’s $81.73 million mortgage with Capital One.

Built on the 36.1-acre site near the Wellington Mall in 2022, Wellington Bay features 224 independent living, assisted living and memory care units with a combined 424 beds. Amenities include a dining room, indoor and outdoor pools, a spa, a salon, a wellness center, a theater and social rooms. It’s operated by Liberty Senior Living.

The project broke ground in 2019 with an $89.03 million construction loan.

There’s been strong demand for senior housing in Palm Beach County amid the growth of the senior population, however, higher interest rates have put a damper on sales prices for most types of commercial real estate.

The Fallon Company started work on The Colwick, a $100 million, 234-unit multifamily rental project at Colwick and Chiswick roads in Charlotte.  The Fallon Co. paid $7 million for the site in December 2022.

Axiom Architecture is the project architect and designer. Edifice Construction is the general contractor, and Santander Bank provided project financing.

The 7-story development will feature:

• 1, 2, and 3-bedroom units
• Co-working lounge with video conferencing rooms
• Saltwater pool
• Onsite pet spa and dog park
• Fitness center with private yoga studio
• Outdoor grill stations and pizza oven
• Garden courtyard with activity lawn and fireside lounge
• Resident social lounge and game room
• Golf Simulator room
• Outdoor gaming lawn with bistro lighting

The Colwick, which is expected to deliver in late 2026, will be the first large-scale rental building in Cotswold in decades.

LG Development Group has locked up a $100 million construction contract for a 20-story tower at 1711 Broadway in Nashville. Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. provided the financing. The LG paid $14.1 million for the Midtown property near the intersection of Broadway and Division Street.

The building will consist of 396 units as well as a U.S. Bank branch. Norr Design Inc. and Raleigh-based Kimley-Horn & Associates are involved in the project.

The Nashville Business Journal reports that it’s the bank’s second nine-figure construction loan in as many years, joining a $113 million loan provided for the Modera SoBro apartment development. LG Development’s proposed tower will rise within walking distance from some of Nashville’s largest and most prominent projects: the Broadwest development and the auto dealership development sites that belong to GBT Realty Corp. and Hines.

HCA Houston Healthcare North Cypress will soon get a new $100 million patient tower. Construction is already underway and will be completed in spring 2026. The project will bring the hospital’s total licensed bed count to 216.

The new addition to the hospital’s campus will include an expanded Central Sterile Processing Department, a 22-bed Acute Rehabilitation Unit, a 31-bed Medical Surgical Unit, and expanded parking facilities.

HCA Healthcare has reinvested over $200 million in the community since acquiring the hospital in 2018.

Meanwhile, Healthcare Realty is modernizing nearly 300,000 square feet of medical office space in the two professional buildings located on campus.

It is one of three major hospital projects ongoing along Hwy. 290 in Cypress. Memorial Hermann Cypress Hospital announced plans for a $277.5 million expansion project in July. Additionally, the construction of Houston Methodist Cypress Hospital is expected to be completed in the coming months.

Kansas City’s Country Club Plaza, an iconic Spanish-styled shopping district, is slated to undergo a long overdue transformation by the property’s new Dallas-based owners.

An affiliate of HP Village Partners, a luxury retail company whose principal owners are descendants of oil tycoon H.L. Hunt, father of Kansas City Chiefs founder Lamar Hunt, purchased the retail site for $175.6 million in June. The company plans an additional $100 million infrastructure overhaul of the century-old Midwest shopping and dining district.

HP Village Partners includes Heather and Ray Washburne, and Elisa and Stephen Summers, and the group also owns the luxury retail center Highland Park Village in Dallas. The improvements will include cleanup, repaving streets, storefront upgrades, lighting, landscaping and re-tenanting the center, reported the Dallas Business Journal.

Built in 1922, The Country Club Plaza is 1.3 million square feet and spans 15 blocks. The Plaza’s retail space is 804,000 square feet, and it also has 219,000 square feet of office space.

A company called Autoport is under contract to purchase a 400-acre timber tract owned by Jordan Lumber where it plans to spend more than $100 million to create the Uwharrie Motorsports Park and Resort. The resort will be in Robbins, on Leech Road, north of N.C. 24-27.

Autoport describes the development as a haven for automotive enthusiasts seeking a one-of-a-kind getaway. Car lovers can showcase and permanently store their automobiles. The three-mile driving course will also offer a quality driving experience.

In Phase 1 of the project, the driving course, clubhouse, and 80-car condos are planned to come online by December 2026. Subsequent phases will include an additional 75-car condos and garages. The winding road course is expected to be three miles in length.

Other planned amenities include a 50,000-square-foot outdoor event space for weddings, corporate retreats, car shows, pickleball courts, a dog park and a jogging course.