Alan Stalcup Pins Investor Losses on Rate Shock Supply Surge

Alan Stalcup says collapsing multifamily fundamentals — not alleged fraud — are to blame for a string of failed investments by the syndicator that have landed his firm in court.

Stalcup, CEO of Austin-based apartment investor and operator GVA Property Management, pushed back in an interview with the Austin Business Journal on claims made by Austin-based investor Bryan Kastleman, who has accused GVA and its leadership of falsifying financials and siphoning money for personal use. Kastleman said he invested $11.3 million across several GVA deals and alleges the firm “cooked the books” to obtain and refinance loans, according to a lawsuit filed last year. GVA and Stalcup have denied the allegations and countersued Kastleman for defamation and business disparagement, among other claims.

Stalcup is also named in a lawsuit from New York-based private lender Benefit Street Partners in February 2025, and in January the Securities and Exchange Commission announced an investigation alleging he misappropriated as much as $100 million from investors.

With the suits and countersuits gearing up in court, Stalcup is publicly laying out a different explanation for GVA’s unraveling: a brutal mix of rising interest rates, inflation and a wave of new apartment supply that crushed values across the Sun Belt, according to the publication.

From the early 2010s through the pandemic, GVA’s strategy of buying older apartment complexes, renovating them and boosting rents worked, Stalcup told the outlet. That changed around 2022, when the Federal Reserve began hiking interest rates aggressively while simultaneously valuations in some markets fell by as much as 40 percent.

“Not only do the valuations go down, but debt service went up, and we’re fighting costs of inflation, labor, property tax and insurance,” Stalcup said. “Then supply really kicked in in 2023 and 2024.”

The oversupply problem in markets such as Austin is well documented. Patton Jones, vice chairman of Newmark’s Central Texas office, told the outlet that the region entered 2024 with roughly 50,000 units in the development pipeline after years of pandemic-fueled in-migration to Sun Belt cities. That surge drove rents down just as borrowing costs spiked, a one-two punch for leveraged apartment owners.

Those conditions, Stalcup said, hit GVA especially hard because of timing. The firm bought roughly $4 billion worth of real estate, with about 80 percent of the portfolio acquired post-pandemic, characterizing his firm’s purchases of older apartments as all underwater.

GVA defaulted on multiple loans in San Antonio, including at Solara, Bella Madera and Melia Apartment Homes, and sold other properties below assessed values. The firm also shrank the total number of is managed apartments from a peak of about 30,000 units to roughly 5,000 today.

Since 2023, GVA has pursued sales, equity recaps and negotiations with lenders, though Stalcup said many lenders were unwilling to modify loans, paving the way for foreclosures. Still, he said the firm continues to operate with about 150 employees and a stabilized core portfolio.

The truth of Kastleman’s allegations — and GVA’s counterclaims — will ultimately be decided in court. For now, Stalcup said his firm is waiting out debt maturities, hoping values rebound before a major tranche of loans comes due around 2028.

— Eric Weilbacher