Dive Brief:

• In early May, ZRS Management, the No. 13-ranked operator on the most recent National Multifamily Housing Council Top 50 list, surpassed 100,000 units under management.
• The Orlando, Florida-based company becomes the 13th firm to pass the 100,000 threshold, according to this year’s NMHC annual rankings. ZRS had one of the largest jumps on this year's list, jumping six spots and gaining almost 15,000 apartments from the previous year.
• ZRS operates almost 350 properties in eight states and the District of Columbia. Over the past decade, its portfolio has grown by approximately 70,000 units — a more than 200% increase.

Dive Insight:

Over the last few years, the multifamily industry has seen several third-party operators, including Atlanta-based RangeWater Real Estate, cross the 100,000-unit threshold, as historically high levels of apartments are delivered and consolidation has hit the management business.

In 2020, seven operators claimed more than 100,000 units on the NMHC Top 50. In 2015, only four firms had passed that threshold. 

For many companies, growth has come through acquisitions or absorbing portfolios of operators who want to exit the management business. For example, in February 2024, Atlanta-based Wood Partners transferred property management operations to Charleston, South Carolina-based Greystar.

However, ZRS has avoided making acquisitions and expanded as its clients grew. “That's really been the most unique part,” President and CEO Darren Pierce, who stepped into the top role at ZRS in January, told Multifamily Dive. “With the consolidation that's happened in our industry on the third-party side and a lot of groups doing it through acquisition, our growth as an entire organization from day one has always been organic.”

Hitting the 100,000 threshold elevates ZRS to being more of a national property management brand. Pierce credits strong retention among its 2,100 employees with fueling the firm’s growth.

“[Getting to 100,000 units] solely was just a compounding of good behaviors, a compounding of good client relationships and investing in our employees,” Pierce said. “It's deal after deal coming in and being rewarded by the confidence from all of our owners. It's definitely been a nice milestone.”

Though the transaction market has been slower over the last few years, ZRS has picked up management contracts from new clients, some of whom are developers that are keeping projects longer than they anticipated.

“Our growth has been on transactions, and when transactions are happening in our business, we are rewarded by our clients buying new deals,” Pierce said. “And so a lot of the growth has also come through management changes — companies that have retained their asset, refinanced their asset, and are looking for a new management partner.”

ZRS could see its numbers increase or decrease as its clients buy and sell.

“As the market starts to loosen up and our clients start to sell, we could easily drop below 100,000 or pick up some more and exceed 100,000,” Pierce said. “We've never measured our success by how many units we've managed.”

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