Triten Real Estate Partners, Evergen Equity Acquire 997-Unit Spring Branch Multifamily Portfolio from Institutionally Owned New York Group

Houston-based Triten Real Estate Partners has completed its acquisition of a 997-unit, three-property multifamily portfolio in Houston's Spring Branch submarket, partnering with Austin-based Evergen Equity as a long-term equity partner. The seller was an institutionally owned New York group that had held and maintained the communities since their original construction in the late 1970s.

The portfolio, collectively known as the Three Corners assemblage, spans more than 35 acres along Kempwood Drive and comprises 3 Corners West, 3 Corners North and 3 Corners East — three garden-style apartment communities offering one-, two- and three-bedroom floor plans. Amenities across the portfolio include multiple swimming pools, a fitness center, covered parking and landscaped courtyards.

Portfolio Details: Three Corners North, East and West

Triten acquired 3 Corners North and 3 Corners East in November 2023, with 3 Corners West — a 283-unit community — representing the final piece of the assemblage. Together, the three properties total 997 units, giving Triten full ownership of one of the area's largest multifamily communities.

3 Corners West corresponds to the Venti apartments at 2235 Gessner Rd., Houston, TX 77080, a 283-unit garden community built in approximately 1979. 3 Corners North aligns with The Abbey at Spring Branch at 1700 Brittmoore Rd., Houston, TX 77043, a 350-unit community built in 1978–1979. 3 Corners East, a 364-unit community also dating to the late 1970s, is located near Kempwood Drive east of Gessner. All three are low-rise, surface-parked communities consistent with Class B product from that era.

No transaction price was disclosed.

Strategy: Cash Flow Over Repositioning

Scott Arnoldy, CEO of Triten Real Estate Partners, said the institutional stewardship of the properties by the New York seller was a key factor in the acquisition decision.

"It was institutionally owned by a group out of New York, so they've maintained it really well, even though it was built in 1979," Arnoldy said. "If you've been keeping up with what's happening with older vintage product, it's been pretty ugly from an ownership perspective. A lot of people just overpaid. There is a lot of product that's been mismanaged or they're not investing capital back into the development."

Arnoldy said the involvement of Evergen Equity as a long-term capital partner was central to the deal's structure. "We thought this one was very high quality, and we thought that if we brought in a long-term investor, a group called Evergen Equity out of Austin, we could pick it up because it was priced appropriately. It would allow us to get an actual cash flow," he said.

Triten does not plan a heavy value-add repositioning of the communities. "We're going to keep it the way it is because we're dedicated to providing housing that segment of the market; we're not going to do a bunch of upgrades to make the rent super expensive," Arnoldy said. Instead, the firm plans to implement a coordinated operating strategy across all three properties, focusing on operational efficiencies, improving performance, maintaining the communities and enhancing the resident experience.

Spring Branch Submarket Context

The Three Corners portfolio sits north of Interstate 10 in Spring Branch, a submarket that has seen substantial townhome infill and single-family redevelopment in recent years. The Kempwood and Gessner corridor provides connectivity to the Energy Corridor, Memorial City and Westchase employment nodes, supporting demand from working-class renters. Class B communities from the 1970s in the submarket have generally maintained mid-90s occupancy even as newer Class A stock has faced softer lease-up conditions amid heavy supply deliveries across Houston.

Arnoldy pointed to the widening gap between the cost of renting and owning as a structural tailwind for the portfolio. "I don't think the rent-versus-own gap has ever been this wide for this long," he said. "In a lot of areas, there's nothing to buy because no one wants to sell. The cost of moving with a new interest rate is crazy high. You can go rent for literally 40% less than that."

He also noted that elevated construction costs, inflation and higher interest rates have made new multifamily development increasingly difficult to underwrite, particularly inside Houston's Beltway 8. "Something's got to give at some point, or you're not going to see much getting built inside Beltway 8," Arnoldy said. "You're going to need to see some improvement in the fundamentals before that happens."

Triten's Broader Growth Strategy

The Spring Branch acquisition reflects a broader strategic shift at Triten Real Estate Partners, which has expanded to 11 markets across the country while maintaining a strong focus on its Houston home base. Arnoldy said the firm has pivoted its mixed-use development activity toward multifamily-anchored projects and has increased its focus on industrial assets, including industrial outdoor storage and older Class B product.

"We never forget about our backyard," Arnoldy said of Houston.

In addition to the Spring Branch portfolio, Triten has broken ground on The Landing at Aliana, a 294-unit multifamily development in Richmond, Texas, via a joint venture with NewQuest. The firm is also advancing mixed-use and adaptive reuse projects in Houston, including the Swift BLDG project in partnership with Radom Capital, which Arnoldy said is approximately 70% through construction with commitments on 87% of the project and 72% leased. Triten's The Mill mixed-use development in Houston's East End is currently in lease-up.

On the industrial side, Arnoldy said Houston remains one of the strongest markets in the country, though he cautioned that the volume of new industrial development — he cited more than 30 million square feet under construction — could lead the firm to pull back on new starts. "That's usually when we will pull back and say, 'Let's take a little bit of a pause,'" he said.

Arnoldy said Triten is actively recruiting talent, particularly on the capital markets side, as it continues to grow its platform across industrial and multifamily asset classes.