Dive Brief:
- Earlier this week, Greensboro, North Carolina-based apartment owner and operator Bell Partners announced that Sarah Young has been appointed to succeed John Tomlinson as chief financial officer, according to a news release.
- Young previously served as CFO and senior managing director at Irving, Texas-based Quarterra Group, a subsidiary of Miami-based homebuilder Lennar. She will report to Lili Dunn, CEO and president of Bell Partners, which ranked No. 14 on 2025 National Multifamily Housing Council’s Top 50 Manager list with 88,407 units across the U.S.
- Tomlinson, who plans to retire on Aug. 22, will remain an advisor through the end of 2025 to further support the company and facilitate an orderly transition.
Dive Insight:
In her new role at Bell, Young will lead the firm’s accounting, corporate finance, tax, financial planning and analysis, legal, compliance and risk management teams. She will also serve on the company’s executive and investment committees, helping guide the company’s strategic direction, business policies and investment decisions.
Young spent the previous 10 years at Quarterra, where she managed financial operations and strategic planning for the organization and its residential platforms.
Young also served on Quarterra’s Investment Committee, where she was actively involved in high-level strategic decisions, contributing to the company’s business performance across various platforms, including multifamily, single-family and land finance, according to the release.
However, Quarterra has been scaling down its operations over the past couple of years. In a deal that closed last June, New York City-based global investment firm KKR purchased 5,200 units from Quarterra for about $2.1 billion. In September, it sold another 1,400 apartments to QuadReal Property Group, a Vancouver, British Columbia-based global real estate investment, operating and development company.
In June, New York City-based software provider Alfred and its property management firm, Charlotte-based RKW Residential, merged with Quarterra Living, the apartment operational arm of Quarterra Multifamily. The firm provided roughly 30,000 units to the venture.
Before her tenure at Quarterra, Young was part of the finance group at Walton Street Capital, where she managed equity commitments across several funds. She began her career at Ernst & Young LLP.
“Sarah Young comes to us with a wealth of experience guiding real estate investment decisions and fund management strategies in increasingly complicated financial arenas,” Dunn said in the news release.
While Quarterra has been scaling back, Bell is growing. The firm has been an active buyer of apartments this year, recently purchasing the Montane Apartments, a 400-unit apartment community located in Parker, Colorado, according to a separate news release. It purchased the asset through its Bell Value Add Fund VIII and will rename it Bell Parker Ranch.
In January, Bell announced it had acquired two properties in Denver and one in Miami on behalf of its Bell Value-Add Fund VIII in separate transactions for a total of $264.3 million.
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