Avenue Living Asset Management Announces Successful Equity Raise and Milestone $3.55 Billion in Assets Under Management

Calgary-based Avenue Living Asset Management, announced today its Avenue Living Real Estate Core Trust has raised $103 million in equity since December 2021. Beginning with an original expansion target offering of $60 million, the allocation of this close to a series of accretive purchases, brings the Canadian alternative asset manager from $3.25 billion to over $3.5 billion in assets under management in only two months.

According to Jason Jogia, Chief Investment Officer at Avenue Living, “this strong investor interest demonstrates confidence in Avenue Living’s uniquely designed, vertically integrated investment platform.”

“We are very excited about the timing of this accretive capital raise, and what it does for the execution of our continued growth and diversification activities. It builds on a carefully defined consolidation strategy focused on multi-family, low-to-medium density workforce housing apartment assets across the North American Heartland,” says Jogia. “These funds continue to support and accelerate further acquisitions, many of which are already in action in key regions across Canada and the United States.”

The Core Trust focuses on multi-family assets and delivers institutional-level servicing to North America’s most essential workers. The fund provides investors with an opportunity to own real assets that are not correlated to the public markets and delivers a valuable hedge against inflation.

“Right now, investors are shying away from market volatility,” says Anthony Giuffre, Avenue Living’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer. “An offering like the Core Trust is an ideal way for them to invest in real estate without actively managing the assets themselves. We are thrilled about the response to this capital raise as it will help us actualize our growing pipeline of North American acquisitions, allow us to gain significant market share, and provide investors with geographic diversification at a time when housing affordability is in high demand.”

ABOUT AVENUE LIVING
Founded on the principle of investing in the everyday, Avenue Living focuses on opportunities that are often overlooked by others, having grown to over $3.5 billion in aggregate assets under management across four private real estate investment mandates. The Avenue Living team includes over 750 professionals with expertise in real estate operations and transactions, property management, research, investment origination, and capital markets, as well as a suite of subject matter experts to support Avenue Living’s growing portfolio of multi-family residential, commercial, agricultural land, and self-storage assets. In addition to over 14,000 multi-family units located in Canada and the United States, Avenue Living and its related entities own over 450,000 square feet of commercial space, 48,000 acres of productive farmland, and more than 2,700,000 square feet of self-storage space.

This commentary and the information contained herein are for educational and informational purposes only and do not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities or related financial instruments. This communication may contain forward-looking statements. Readers should refer to information contained on our website at www.alamstg.wpenginepowered.com for additional information regarding forward-looking statements and certain risks associated with them.

2021: A Year of Growth for Avenue Living Asset Management

Avenue Living’s strategic approach and milestones from the past year continue to support our business expansion across North America. 

Avenue Living Asset Management reached a number of significant milestones in 2021. Despite the ongoing pandemic and challenges facing the world today, our robust investments in workforce housing, self-storage, and agricultural properties — on both sides of the border — grew our total assets under management to over $3.1 billion, more than doubling in value in under 1.5 years.

Throughout the year, Avenue Living focused strategically on two key areas of our business to drive greater customer satisfaction — our platform and our service model. “Like healthy soil, when you start with a solid foundation, anything you plant in it will grow,” says Anthony Giuffre, CEO of Avenue Living. “This is why we focus on investing in our people while optimizing and refining our end-to-end customer service model. For us, it was vital to have these two important elements in place before expanding our assets under management.”

“During the last two years we’ve had to navigate numerous waves of COVID-19 and changing public health restrictions — and through that process, we’ve constantly adapted,” says Anthony. “When housing 30,000 people and serving a diverse set of customers, it’s essential to understand their specific needs. To cater to these unique needs, we had to make our operations as fluid and functional as possible to ensure a high level of customer satisfaction. I would say our team did that exceptionally well in 2021.”

With the addition of more than 2,800 multi-family apartment units, 6,600 acres of farmland, and 1,750,000 square feet of storage units last year alone, Avenue Living continued to fortify our position as a leading multi-family owner/operator in Canada, along with a growing presence in the self-storage, agriculture, and U.S. multi-family spaces.

Avenue Living’s portfolio now includes over 13,000 multi-residential units, over 2 million square feet of self-storage property space and 48,000 acres of agricultural real estate — and we anticipate significant growth in 2022 with our Core Trust’s acquisition of our U.S. Real Estate Trust, moving us towards a more holistic North American investment focus with a large pipeline of potential assets.

“We’ve now created a more institutionalized and robust platform for our business,” says Anthony. “Our well-defined processes, technological advancement, and clear objectives differentiate us. In addition to having a laser-focused acquisition strategy for workforce housing assets, we have prioritized our overall customer experience, which is key to our continued success.”

Below are some of our most important milestones and achievements from last year, all of which set us up for a strong start to 2022.

The Avenue Living Team Passes 750 Employees Strong

Our team welcomed a record number of new colleagues last year; now totaling 750 employees within the company and across North America. These experts are the backbone of our platform and one of the main reasons we have been able to achieve such sustained growth.

Assets Under Management Grow to $3.1 Billion

Avenue Living reached a major benchmark earlier this year as the company surpassed more than $3.1 billion in assets under management. This is a significant achievement and shows incredible growth as the total amount of AUM doubled from $1.5 billion to $3.1 billion in less than 1.5 years.

Avenue Living Joins Principles for Responsible Investment

We were honoured and proud to announce that Avenue Living became a signatory of the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), the world’s leading proponent of responsible investment. The PRI framework encourages investors to use responsible investment to enhance returns and better manage risks and is supported by the United Nations. We are pleased to be among the 218 global organizations that became new signatories in 2021. The PRI now has 4,375 signatories, representing US$121 trillion of AUM. As PRI signatories, we ensure that as we grow, we do so responsibly.

MMSP Trust Establishes U.S. Footprint

Mini Mall Storage Properties Trust acquired its first storage property south of the border in December 2021. Located in Arkansas, this property is the beginning of an expansion into the American Heartland, where we will continue to move into attractive secondary markets under the leadership of our new President of U.S. Operations.

Avenue Living Creates First North American Workforce Housing Fund

Our U.S.-focused Trust, which was established in February 2020 and exclusively held multi-family properties in the United States, reached the $100 million AUM mark in 2021. The Trust’s success demonstrates the defensibility of our investment strategy and the value our U.S. expansion brought to the Avenue Living portfolio. On the strength of this growth, Avenue Living Core Trust acquired 100 per cent ownership of the U.S. Real Estate Trust, and its U.S. assets. This alignment created the first North American Workforce Housing Fund, offering further diversification to investors by operating across a broader geographic platform while continuing to specialize in what we do best.

Poised for Continued Growth in 2022

With a clear focus on Avenue Living’s pillars of success and key investment strategies, we have achieved many pivotal milestones in 2021. These foundational elements have become the framework for us to continue our expansion and growth into 2022.

This commentary and the information contained herein are for educational and informational purposes only and do not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities or related financial instruments. This article may contain forward-looking statements. Readers should refer to information contained on our website at www.alamstg.wpenginepowered.com for additional information regarding forward-looking statements and certain risks associated with them.

Mini Mall Storage Properties Expands Operations to the U.S.

We are pleased to announce that our Mini Mall Storage Properties Trust (MMSP Trust) will expand into the United States. The expansion is a continuation of the overall plan to position MMSP Trust to acquire self-storage properties in attractive secondary markets across North America.

Through the fund’s strategic acquisitions in Canada, and extensive market research, the MMSP Trust team has determined the time is right to also focus efforts on the U.S., where similar risk-return opportunities exist.

“Based on our success here in Canada, we feel the time is right to expand our scope to include the U.S. self-storage market. When it comes to geography, we’re agnostic,” says Adam Villard, Chief Executive Officer, MMSP Trust.

MMSP Trust has always had its sights set on the U.S. market.

“We felt it was important as a new fund to first deliver on what we set out to do, which was to generate success here in Canada. Given that success, we can enter the U.S. market with confidence,” Villard says, adding that MMSP Trust will continue to seek out opportunities in Canada.

From inception, the Trust went from $4 million to $458 million in assets under management (AUM), which played an integral part in Avenue Living reaching $3 billion AUM. MMSP Trust has expanded into six provinces so far and amassed over 2 million square feet in storage. “We were able to enter the Canadian market at the perfect time and acquire assets at rates that were favourable to the fund,” Villard says.

“Through leveraging Avenue Living’s Canadian platform and U.S. presence, partnerships and learnings, and expertise, we believe the U.S. to be a desirable market that represents substantial room and opportunity for growth. We’re going to follow the lead of and build on Avenue Living’s successful expansion into the U.S.,” Villard says.

By using Avenue Living’s proprietary approach to market research and extensive knowledge of the U.S. market, MMSP Trust has identified key regions within the United States to target as entry points. These markets exhibit strong storage demographic trends, such as aging population, and a low supply scenario with a favourable square-foot-per-capita metric.

“By emulating how we’ve identified opportunities, minimized risk and effectively entered new markets in Canada, MMSP Trust’s U.S. entry is designed around acquiring anchor assets in markets with similar success profiles that also demonstrate that opportunity for growth. We closely monitor local trends through both in-depth research and the management of close ties to a collection of independent ownership groups,” Villard says.

This commentary and the information contained herein are for educational and informational purposes only and do not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities or related financial instruments. This article may contain forward-looking statements. Readers should refer to information contained on our website at www.alamstg.wpenginepowered.com for additional information regarding forward-looking statements and certain risks associated with them.

Avenue Living Asset Management of Calgary has doubled its AUM during the pandemic

We are thrilled to announce we have raised our AUM above $3 billion and solidified ourselves as one of Canada’s leading workforce housing providers. In the last 1.5 years, we have doubled our portfolio and increased our AUM by $1.5 billion.

Our talented team, sound investment strategy, and robust, agile platform — as well as the ongoing support we’ve received from our investors and capital partners — has allowed us to be proactive and expand our operations, despite a global pandemic.

Our Founder and CEO, Anthony Giuffre, spoke with Wealth Professional on Avenue Living’s success, how we got here, and our vision moving forward.

Read more here: How asset manager doubled its AUM to $3 billion during pandemic | Wealth Professional

This commentary and the information contained herein are for educational and informational purposes only and do not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities or related financial instruments. This article may contain forward-looking statements. Readers should refer to information contained on our website at www.alamstg.wpenginepowered.com for additional information regarding forward-looking statements and certain risks associated with them.

Housing affordability should be at the forefront of many discussions: Avenue Living CEO

Avenue Living Founder and CEO Anthony Giuffre joined Greg Bonnell at BNN Bloomberg to discuss our outlook on the real estate market and navigating through the pandemic.

“We stick with the fundamentals. We’re seeing a massive transition of wealth — or a ‘changing of the guard,’ with the old guard looking for liquidity, and platforms like ourselves have the ability to continue to provide value-add in that space.”

To see the full interview, click here: Housing affordability should be at the forefront of many discussions: Avenue Living CEO – Video – BNN (bnnbloomberg.ca)

This commentary and the information contained herein are for educational and informational purposes only and do not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities or related financial instruments. This article may contain forward-looking statements. Readers should refer to information contained on our website at www.alamstg.wpenginepowered.com for additional information regarding forward-looking statements and certain risks associated with them.