Josh Gotlib, Meyer Orbach Launching REIT

Josh Gotlib and Meyer Orbach are launching a real estate investment trust that will trade north of the border.

GO Partners, the joint venture between the respective leaders of Black Spruce Management and The Orbach Group, filed a preliminary prospectus to list a $2.7 billion multifamily portfolio on the Toronto Stock Exchange, Bisnow reported. The portfolio of more than 2,000 units will trade as GO Residential REIT.

The REIT will hit the exchange through an initial public offering. It’s unclear how much the partners seek to raise through the IPO or where shares will be priced, but they aim to pay down part of their $1.4B debt across the portfolio and retire “certain preferred interests.”

The REIT’s holdings will initially be a five-property portfolio of luxury high-rises in Manhattan. The most prominent of those properties is the 761-unit Copper Apartments, once the American Copper Buildings, which Gotlib and Orbach purchased in 2022 for $837 million.

The other properties in the portfolio include a 408-unit building at 685 First Avenue, the 403-unit building at 1 East River Place, and One and Two Sutton Place, which have 433 units. The REIT will ultimately expand to luxury multifamily developments in other major cities.

GO Residential REIT is undercharging for rent, according to the prospectus. The partners plan to raise rents to reach market-rate levels, including upgrading units. The firm will also seek other paths of growth, including renting amenity spaces for additional revenue streams.

Orbach will be the REIT’s board chair, while Gotlib will serve as both chief executive officer and chief investment officer. Both will be considered founders and both will serve as trustees.

Gotlib and Orbach have been quiet in recent months, but made a big splash in the fall when retired boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. entered into contract to pay $402 million for a 1,000-unit affordable housing portfolio of more than 60 buildings from Black Spruce.

— Holden Walter-Warner