This morning, Alpine Investors announced the launch of Oakline Properties, a platform focused on partnering with and scaling property and association management businesses nationwide, the company shared with Multifamily Dive.
Oakline announced the purchase of Woodland Hills, California-based Cirrus Asset Management, which oversees more than 20,000 units across multiple states, in conjunction with the launch.
Founded by Steve Heimler in 2007, the property and asset management firm has a portfolio valued at over $7 billion and a leadership team with more than 150 years of combined industry experience, according to a press release shared with Multifamily Dive. Terms of the sale weren’t released.
Oakline’s platform will offer cross-platform lead generation, service offerings, tech-enabled solutions and access to talent. Amanda Sayigh, who has experience scaling companies, will be the firm’s CEO.
“I want to build Oakline to be the best property management firm across the United States for our customers, for our owners, as well as for our employees,” Sayigh told Multifamily Dive. “If you can ace all those different factors, the sky's the limit.”
Building a platform
In addition to Sayigh, who was previously COO and CFO of Innovative Systems, a provider of enterprise software for the independent telecommunications industry, Oakline has added Nina-Lee Jewell Alhambra as chief portfolio officer, where she will oversee platform build and partner company operations.
Jewell Alhambra has more than 20 years of leadership across property management, LIHTC development and asset services. She most recently served as the chief operating officer of April Housing, a Blackstone portfolio company specializing in affordable housing.
“At the Oakline level, we are going to have a nice blend of industry veterans and folks akin to Nina-Lee,” Sayigh said. “We will also bring in sales and marketing and customer success expertise, who may not be from the property management space, but know those functional areas.”
Oakline, which is part of Alpine’s $4.5 billion Fund IX, plans to partner with market-leading and regionally based property management businesses all across the United States.
“We will look and be selective to find additional property management firms that are of the Cirrus quality in other regions to partner with,” Sayigh said.
For now, the goal is to fuel growth for Cirrus, which is the first platform purchased by Oakline. Sayigh saw an immediate fit with Heimler’s company.
“With the team they have built and the culture they've built, we are beyond excited to partner with them and help them fuel into this next chapter of growth,” Sayigh said.
Cirrus expansion
Cirrus has grown over the past year, moving into Colorado and Nevada, according to Heimler. Joining with Oakline can fuel further expansion.
“We expanded geography, probably faster and broader than I had intended, but it's really just a function of the culture that we've built,” Heimler told Multifamily Dive.
Building property management companies is nothing new to Heimler. In 1989, he founded Stratus Management. Through numerous mergers and acquisitions, he developed it into Stratus Real Estate Inc., a firm with over 24,000 apartments in 215 communities throughout California, Arizona and Hawai’i. He sold that firm to Riverstone Residential in 2007, which was later acquired by Greystar in a massive deal in 2014.
“What's not common knowledge is that both those companies [Stratus and Cirrus] never placed an ad and never had a salesperson,” Heimler said. “It was 100% organic growth. So by partnering with big business organizations like Oakline and Alpine, I'm excited about going out to market and actually chasing deals that are strategic for the organization, rather than just accepting organic growth.”
Heimler is also excited about the opportunity for more focused growth and to work with executives who have guided multiple large businesses.
“We're very good at running properties, but running big business is separate,” Heimler said. “That is where the value is really going to come in. We've done a nice job, and I think it's ready for the sunshine and water that they're going to bring.”
Click here to sign up to receive multifamily and apartment news like this article in your inbox every weekday.
