Harrison Street Asset Management (HSAM) has closed the $910-million sale of a 12-property U.S. student housing portfolio to affiliates of The Scion Group and an Ares Real Estate fund. It’s the largest student housing portfolio sale completed in 2026, according to HSAM.

Assembled over a 10-year period by five HSAM funds, the 7,578-bed portfolio serves leading university markets across the U.S., including those home to the University of Florida, Auburn University, the University of Notre Dame, The Ohio State University and James Madison University. Scion will serve as operating partner.

“This transaction represents important milestones for Scion,” said Robert Bronstein, Scion CEO. “We are beginning a partnership with Ares, one of the leading asset management firms globally, at the same time Scion’s owned portfolio now totals over 105,000 beds, making Scion the world’s largest owner of student housing. This sector continues to demonstrate resilient demand characteristics, and we are pleased to expand our platform alongside Ares.”

Although the deal represents a first-time partnership between Scion and Ares, buyer and seller have collaborated before. HSAM and Scion have completed multiple large-scale transactions together since 2017, including a nearly $900-million student housing portfolio sale in November 2024.

Affinius Capital originated an $82.3 million loan to finance the ground-up development of Eastport Logistics Park, a to-be-built four-building industrial development in Jacksonville, FL, totaling 890,000 square feet. The loan was provided to a joint venture between InLight Real Estate Partners and an Ares Management Real Estate fund and will be used for the construction and lease-up of the project. 

Eastport Logistics Park will feature four buildings with 32’-36’ clear heights, 135’-185’ truck court depths, 222 dock doors, 418 trailer parking stalls, and 691 car parking spaces. Located just off I-295, five miles from the I-95 interchange and four miles from the Port of Jacksonville, the development will offer seamless connectivity to the broader Jacksonville market and major East Coast port markets, with access to 98 million consumers within a one-day drive. Its location serves the area’s growing e-commerce, logistics, and distribution needs while offering access to adequate labor pools. 

The Shaftesbury Capital sale includes a mix of properties around Fitzrovia.

After it abandoned attempts to sell a £250M tranche of its Fitzrovia portfolio last year, Shaftesbury Capital has found a buyer for around £65M of London-based assets, React News reports. 

Ares Management is to acquire the majority of the REIT’s holdings in the Fitzrovia area, which were among those put up for sale last summer as part of the company’s capital recycling programme, according to React.

The assets are spread across Charlotte Street and Goodge Street and are predominantly independent restaurants, cafés, pubs and bars, plus some office space. 

In total, Shaftesbury Capital owns circa 670 buildings in and around London’s West End and has been seeking buyers for about 5% of its property portfolio identified as noncore from its £5B real estate holdings. 

The landlord had been seeking offers for a larger portfolio, which included restaurants and bars, offices, stores and apartments that were valued at about £118M at the end of June, according to its financial update at the time, as the first phase of plans to dispose of about £250M of properties. 

The proposed Ares acquisition is understood to exclude the pubs and a number of other assets. Included in the deal, which totals around 100K SF, are 11 office properties, seven stores, 28 hospitality and leisure outlets, and 56 residential apartments. 

In November, Shaftesbury Capital, which had appointed CBRE to lead the disposals, scrapped plans to offload its noncore portfolio after bids fell below its expectations. Instead, it investigated selling off the assets individually or in smaller asset bundles.

The decision to sell these assets followed the completion of Shaftesbury’s merger with fellow London landlord Capco in March 2023 and the subsequent decision to focus on areas including Covent Garden and Soho.

In December, Shaftesbury Capital signed a £300M unsecured loan agreement with an initial maturity of three years and an option to extend by up to two years. The company said that combined with existing cash resources, the funds were to be used to repay the remaining £376M balance of an unsecured loan arranged at the time of the merger to repay Shaftesbury PLC secured bonds. 

JLL is advising Ares Management on the Fitzrovia portfolio deal.