Starlight’s two-month-old U.S. Residential Fund (SURF-A-X) will push its portfolio past the 1,100-unit mark with the pending acquisition of the class-A Emerson at Buda multifamily community in Austin, Texas.

Starlight will purchase the 304-apartment property for $103 million (all figures Cdn). Pending the successful completion of conditions in the agreement, the sale is expected to close on or about Dec. 21.

The 16-acre site consists of 22 garden-style buildings with one-, two- and three-bedroom suites. The fund plans to improve the property with upgrades to suite finishes.

Its amenities include a 24-hour fitness centre, a co-working space with video conferencing
facilities, resort-style pool with cabanas, sand volleyball court, pet park and dog spa and an outdoor game area.

Starlight plans to retain the boutique property management firm Avenue5 Residential to manage Emerson.

The fund will partially finance the acquisition through a $67-million mortgage, which will provide additional liquidity for the fund to add more properties to its portfolio. In the announcement, Starlight says it continues to evaluate additional properties for the fund.

The fund’s recent IPO

Starlight’s U.S. Residential Fund has been very active since completing its IPO in November with about $320 million in equity. Fund president Evan Kirsh called it “Starlight’s largest retail-focused United States residential fund to date,” at the time of the close.

It has already made three other acquisitions in three Southern U.S. states.

Immediately after the IPO, Starlight announced the acquisition of the class-A Indigo Apartments, comprising 489 residential suites in Raleigh, N.C.

The same month, it acquired a Nevada property comprising 376 multifamily residential suites as well as a 268-suite property in Tampa.

Following the Austin transaction, the Starlight U.S. Residential Fund will hold a portfolio of 1,133, stabilized class-A multifamily suites, as well as 45 single-family residential rental homes in Atlanta.

Starlight is involved in the preliminary prospectus stage for another new fund, The Western Canada Multi-Family (No. 2) Fund. It is targeting between $42 million and $100 million in equity for the fund.

It is aimed at newer vintage and newly constructed  multiresidential properties in British Columbia.

Following the completion of its offering, the Western Canada fund intends to immediately acquire several properties: 60 multiresidential suites at 733 Goldstream Ave. in Langford; and 251 apartments at 6035 Linley Valley Dr. and 4800 Uplands Dr. in Nanaimo.

About Starlight

Starlight currently owns and manages $23 billion in assets in Canada and the United States.

This includes more than 900 properties comprising approximately 70,000 multiresidential suites, approximately 10,000 of which are in the U.S.