JP Morgan, Georgia Capital Form Build-to-Rent JV to Create 300 Rental Homes
By Mark Hallum February 13, 2025 12:51 pm
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J.P. Morgan has Georgia (and neighboring Tennessee) on its mind as it teams up with a development firm to build rental homes in the South.
J.P. Morgan Asset Management and Georgia Capital formed a joint venture called Laseter Development Group with big plans for almost 300 build-to-rent (BTR) houses in the suburbs of Atlanta and Nashville, the companies announced Thursday.
The move to construct 165 rental homes in Georgia and 126 in Tennessee comes as the prospects of buying a home remain well out of reach for millennials who continue to rent in the midst of high housing costs and elevated mortgage rates.
“This initiative underscores our strategic focus on the BTR asset class and reinforces our commitment to this high-conviction sector,” Chad Tredway, head of real estate in the Americas for J.P. Morgan Asset Management, said in a statement. “Demographic shifts and job growth in the Sun Belt are driving increased demand for single-family housing. With millennials seeking more space and housing prices at record highs, many are turning to rentals, fueling the growth of this sector.”
Whit Marshall, the former Philadelphia Eagles and Atlanta Falcons linebacker turned partner at Georgia Capital, will serve as founder and CEO of Laseter, according to the joint venture.
“The institutional world and the production homebuilding world are very different,” Marshall said in a statement. “We believe that the combination of our land development and production homebuilding expertise with J.P. Morgan’s scale and investing perspective positions us to be at the forefront of this unique opportunity in the early stages of this new real estate sector.”
Not only will Laseter focus on these two developments, but it also plans to provide general contracting services to other developers looking to build single-family homes for rent.
Georgia Capital — which is doing the joint venture with its homebuilding affiliate Paran Homes — found its niche in BTR homes starting in 2020. It has since built around 3,000 single-family units while developing, financing or selling over 6,000 residential lots.
J.P. Morgan has a slightly bigger footprint in that space, having built up a $2 billion portfolio across 65 communities comprising 6,000 homes since 2020.
In a December interview with CO, Tredway spoke of BTR as a high-conviction theme for the bank.
“Build-to-rent is where we believe that you’re going to have outsized gains, particularly in markets where the migration trends favor us, which is the Southeast,” Tredway said. “So we’re focused on build-to-rent, primarily in the Sun Belt, and targeting average rent levels around 2,500 bucks a month. The reason for that is that your average family in the United States makes roughly $105,000 a year and, as any local Chase branch will tell you, don’t spend any more than 30 percent of your income on housing. We’re focused on what’s affordable for middle-class families in the U.S.”
Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.
