Inland dissolves apartment REIT after raising just 5 percent of $1B goal

The trust’s board voted to sell its 623 apartments and reimburse investors for the $50M they kicked in

The Commons at Town Center in Vernon Hills, Inland Real Estate Group principal Daniel L. Goodwin
The Commons at Town Center in Vernon Hills, Inland Real Estate Group principal Daniel L. Goodwin

Inland Real Estate Group is liquidating an apartment REIT it launched in 2015, after raising a fraction of its $1 billion goal.

The board of Inland Residential Properties Trust voted in September to sell off its three properties and repay investors the combined $50 million they had kicked into the effort, according to Crain’s.

The liquidation represented a sharp reversal from the 2000s, when the Oak Brook-based real estate empire routinely raised more than $1 billion for its REITS each year. At its peak in 2007, Inland’s REITS took in $3.7 billion, nearly a third of all the money raised nationally that year.

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The Inland Residential Properties Trust owns 623 apartments, including at the 85-unit Commons at Town Center in north suburban Vernon Hills.

Sales of stock in unlisted REITS, which don’t trade publicly, totaled $4.2 billion last year, down from $19.6 billion in 2013. The decline is widely blamed on new federal regulations requiring REITS to disclose the value of their shares.

Inland’s development arm began construction this year on a 100-unit apartment building in the heart of Logan Square. 

Founded by four schoolteachers in 1968, Inland has since managed, developed or funded hundreds of millions of square feet of commercial properties across 49 states. [Crain’s] — Alex Nitkin