Lincoln Property Co. has purchased Charlotte-based developer The Spectrum Cos. in a deal that Lincoln says will help it grow its footprint across the Carolinas.

Dallas-based Lincoln will combine its Carolinas platform with Spectrum and will also include Spectrum’s northern and central Florida multifamily business, Lincoln said in a Tuesday press release. The companies say the move will help boost the combined firm’s development and acquisition pipeline.

The companies’ portfolios will merge well because of Spectrum’s strong focus on multifamily development, executives from both firms told the Charlotte Business Journal, which first reported the news. Spectrum has developed almost 7,000 multifamily units since its founding, according to the release.

The sum of the sale was not disclosed.

“Lincoln has been focused on growing and investing in the Carolinas for many years, and Spectrum presented a unique opportunity to accelerate that strategy,” Johno Harris, senior executive vice president at Lincoln, told Bisnow.

He added that Spectrum’s “exceptional team” complements Lincoln’s existing platform well.

“As we looked at the next phase of growth in the region, it became clear that bringing our organizations together would create a stronger business, expand our capabilities and position us to better serve clients and pursue new opportunities across the Carolinas,” he said.

A spokesperson for Spectrum didn’t comment in time for publication.

Spectrum’s 43 employees will move from a 5K SF office into Lincoln’s two-floor, 200K SF headquarters at Piedmont Town Center in SouthPark, which already employs 260 people, CBJ reported. No job cuts are expected.

Executives told CBJ that Spectrum’s name will soon change to Lincoln.

Lincoln’s global portfolio spans 720M SF, according to the company’s website. It manages 27M SF in the Carolinas. The developer’s Charlotte-based work includes the 3M SF Legacy Union office tower complex.

Spectrum’s 4.4M SF portfolio will now become “a significant expansion of Lincoln’s regional footprint,” according to the press release. The company’s local assets previously included Vantage South End, a 635K SF mixed-use development that it sold to Cousins Properties in 2024.

Charlotte ranks among “the most attractive markets for investors” in the country, according to CBRE’s 2026 North America Investor Intentions Survey. Charlotte’s multifamily market is “maintaining stronger demand fundamentals than most peer markets,” a first-quarter Matthews report said, with a 6.2 percent vacancy rate a signal that demand has absorbed new supply.

Charlotte investors are bracing for potential changes to the build-to-rent space.

Charlotte has emerged as one of the strongest BTR markets in recent years, driven in part by population growth and rising housing costs. But some investors are pausing sales as a federal housing bill moves through Congress. The latest version of the bill retains protections for the BTR industry, but its fate remains uncertain.

“We’re not out of the woods yet,” said Jason Esposito, CEO of South Carolina-based homebuilder Center Park Group, which specializes in BTR. “It’s got to go back to the Senate and pass.”

Esposito was speaking at Bisnow’s Multifamily Annual Conference on May 19 at The Union at Station West in Charlotte. Eric Speckman, co-founding principal of investment and development firm Beauxwright, noted a “lack of transaction volume” in the Charlotte BTR market as companies await the bill’s final passage.

“We’re seeing this in real time, particularly on build-to-rent,” Speckman said. “So it’ll be nice, once the legislation gets worked out, to remove some of this uncertainty that investors have.”

In March, major investors mostly stopped buying and financing BTR sites due to the uncertainty of the the 21st Century Road to Housing Act. “Now, it’s kind of a wait-and-see game,” Esposito said. “We have a lot of projects that are at the starting gate that are ready to go.”

On May 20, the House of Representatives passed an amended version of the housing bill that eliminated a controversial BTR provision. That provision, found in a previous Senate version, would have required BTR operators to sell properties after seven years of ownership. The latest bill heads back to the Senate, where a fresh showdown is expected.

Esposito said the provision, if restored, would “completely eliminate additional supply.”

Last year, demand for BTR residences was on the rise in the Queen City, according to the Charlotte Business Journal. As of mid-2025, the Charlotte metro area had more than 4,100 BTR single-family homes under construction, according to a 2025 report by interior building supplier Best Supply, and was ranked second in the space behind Phoenix. 

But the report noted that some national investors had been “slowing new acquisitions after years of aggressive expansion.”

Alex Barroso, executive vice president of Portman Residential, said at the event that BTR is currently facing a lack of tenant demand. 

“Charlotte’s seen a ton of build-to-rent, but some of those have been difficult to lease up,” Barroso said. “They’re a lot slower, which perhaps a lot of developers didn’t assume when they underwrote them.”

Though the space remains “viable,” he says “money is slowly moving away from it.”

But factors like high housing and land costs continued to draw developers to BTR opportunities in Charlotte last year to meet local demand. Among some of the notable deals was Progress Residential’s $27.3M purchase of BTR community Harmon Five Points in October. Barroso said that just a few years ago, BTR was “all everybody and anybody was looking to invest in” in Charlotte.

David Lee, director of land acquisition at JPI, added that “the reason we saw a lot of those deals” is because they are “easier to capitalize.”

Charlotte is still listed among the major markets where “employment diversity, household growth, and suburban expansion continue to support build-to-rent demand” in 2026, according to a recent report by Catalyst Capital Partners.

But the forecast is dependent on what happens with the housing bill. Esposito said investors will continue to pause operations until they see “closure and certainty on the bill.”

Madison Capital Group launched the Go Store It Opportunity Fund, LP, a $250 million self-storage investment initiative aimed at acquiring and developing a diversified portfolio across high-growth Sun Belt markets, concentrating on Florida, North Carolina and Georgia.

The Go Store It Opportunity Fund, LP encompasses a strategy that value-add acquisitions of under-managed, locally owned facilities with below-market rents, create potential for rental growth and operational improvements. The fund will also pursue pre-stabilized acquisitions, enabling it to acquire properties at a discount, with valuations nearing replacement cost and potential for improved cap rates as the properties stabilize. Additionally, the fund will target stabilized assets with strong occupancy rates, providing incremental growth in high-demand areas.

The fund also integrates a development component to construct high-quality storage facilities in select markets with favorable supply-demand dynamics. By strategically building in suburban, urban fringe, and urban core areas, the fund aims to meet diverse storage needs across communities in the Sun Belt.

Charlotte-based The Providence Group completed four retail lease transactions totaling nearly 100,000 square feet across the Carolinas. The activity includes two transactions with HomeGoods, as well as additional deals with Homesense and T.J. Maxx. 

The Providence Groups Melissa McDonald, who represented the company in the transactions, added, “Competition for retail space is high, fueled by increased demand across the Carolinas as retailers seek space, whether in newly-built or redeveloped centers. Vacancies are being driven down and there is an overall lack of supply, which is causing rents to continue rising.” 

HomeGoods opened new stores at University Commons (22,000 square feet) in Greenville, NC and Beaufort Station (24,000 square feet) in Beaufort, SC. In a second deal at Beaufort Station (photo), T.J. Maxx has relocated within the market, signing on for 24,000 square feet.

Lastly, Homesense has opened a nearly 30,000-square-foot store at Sea Turtle Marketplace on Hilton Head Island.

Hunter Hotel Advisors arranged the sale of three metro Atlanta hotels on behalf of Ashford Hospitality Trust. Baywood Hotels acquired the Hampton Inn Lawrenceville, and Pulse Hotel Group acquired the Fairfield Inn & Suites and SpringHill Suites Atlanta Kennesaw.

The 85-key Hampton Inn Lawrenceville is about 30 miles north of Atlanta on State Route 316 and Interstate 85. It is within Gwinnett’s hub of numerous manufacturing and distribution facilities for Publix, McKesson and Amazon. The hotel sits adjacent to Northside Hospital Gwinnett which is currently undergoing a $400-million expansion scheduled for completion in 2025.

The 86-key Fairfield Inn and Suites and 90-key SpringHill Suites Atlanta Kennesaw are located less than a mile apart and benefit from the same demand generators spanning education, leisure and logistics. The hotels are close to Kennesaw State University.

Hunter’s David Perrin represented the seller.

Spartan Investment Group has closed three self-storage deals in the firm’s Growth Fund, including one in Kingsland, GA.

“At a time when it is challenging to secure loans, find equity, or fund new construction, we’re forging ahead in a strategic direction with our deals,” said Spartan CIO, Ryan Gibson. “We are thrilled to add these three deals to our Growth Fund portfolio as they are all in fast-growing markets with the opportunity to add value, and thus, develop strong returns for our investors.”

The Kingsland location is a new Class A facility with 333 units and more than 30,000 rentable square feet. The Spartan team will transition the property into the FreeUp Storage brand, the national banner in which Spartan manages its 66-property portfolio, and expects to expand the facility’s footprint by an additional 20,000 square feet.

The other locations are in Belleview, FL and Pea Ridge AR.