Mark J. Parrell

When Equity Residential founder and real estate titan Sam Zell died in 2023, all eyes turned to Mark Parrell as the new CEO and president of the Chicago-based multifamily giant. In his first full year heading Equity, Parrell went on a billion-dollar buying spree.

Equity Residential spent $964 million in August 2024 to acquire 11 apartment complexes from Blackstone. The 3,500 units are spread across “strong growth expansion markets” in the Atlanta, Denver and Dallas-Fort Worth areas, Equity Chief Investment Officer Alexander Brackenridge said at the time.

But that’s not all. Equity in 2024 and early 2025 snatched up a 227-unit luxury apartment building south of Denver for $91.25 million, and opened three new apartment complexes with its partner Toll Brothers: a 357-unit complex in Frisco, Texas; 334 luxury apartments in Dallas; and a 362-unit building — dubbed the Sadie — in Fort Worth. In total, Equity spent $1.6 billion on 5,373 units throughout 2024, according to the firm’s fourth-quarter 2024 earnings report.

Those Atlanta, Denver and Dallas “expansion markets” are not without their challenges. COO Michael Manelis said in the firm’s fourth-quarter earnings call that he expected Equity’s revenue in those regions to be lower in 2025 than in 2024. 

Still, for the long term, Parrell painted a rosy picture of rent growth for the regions.

“With new apartment supply in 2026 at decade lows in our coastal markets and declining significantly in our expansion markets of Atlanta, Dallas and Denver, the longer-term setup for our business is outstanding,” Parrell said during Equity’s fourth-quarter report. 

Equity’s activity was a bit quieter on the East and West coasts, though the firm in February did offload Town Square at Mark Center, a 678-unit community in Alexandria, Va., for $237 million. (Parrell seems to be a quieter CEO than his loquacious predecessor: He declined to comment on Equity’s operations for Power 100.)

Equity’s tenants in New Jersey, however, loudly criticized the company last year. Residents of two buildings in Jersey City filed a class action lawsuit against the landlord for allegedly failing to comply with rent control regulations set by the city’s Rent Leveling Board in 2023. The suit was temporarily paused last fall, amid an ongoing lawsuit from Equity claiming the buildings should be exempt from rent control.