Page 6 —
COLORADO REAL ESTATE JOURNAL
— April 6-April 19, 2016
by John Rebchook
Jackson Square Properties, a
privately held investment com-
pany based in San Francisco,
recently sold one multifamily
community in the Denver area
and bought another.
“They sold a value-add prop-
erty and traded up to a newer
one,” said Terrance Hunt, who
was part of the ARA Newmark
team that handled both transac-
tions.
Jackson Square owns almost
by John Rebchook
Marcel Arsenault, like the
investors in the popular “Big
Short” movie based on the book
of the same name by Michael
Lewis, correctly predicted the
housing collapse and Great
Recession, and profited hand-
somely from betting against the
housing industry.
Arsenault, chairman and CEO
of Louisville-based Real Capi-
tal Solutions, today is investing
hundreds of millions of dollars
into homebuilding. He also has
a long history of successfully
investing in everything from
apartments to Class C office and
industrial properties.
Arsenault’s latest prediction,
based on his data-intensive
research, is that the country has
a good chance of falling into
another recession in 2019.
He made this prediction to
an audience of about 550 apart-
ment and other real estate lead-
ers during a panel discussion at
the 2016 Multifamily Develop-
ment & Investment Conference
on March 17.
The conference, at the
Inverness Hotel and Conference
Center, was sponsored by the
Colorado Real Estate Journal.
Cary Bruteig, owner of Apart-
ment Appraisers & Consultants,
who also was a sponsor, kicked
off the event with an overview
and historical look at the apart-
ment market by just about every
conceivable metric.
Looking at cycles, risks and
population growth beginning in
1980 and projected through 2020,
Bruteig had this to say: “Regard-
less of what happens, Denver
will continue to grow and things
will be good enough.”
Going forward, he said he is
a bit concerned about employ-
ment growth for the region and
the state, as it has been slowing.
Arsenault was on the “Market
Forecast: Where Are We in the
Apartment Cycle?” panel with
Mike Zoellner, CEO of Denver-
based RedPeak Properties, and
Andrew Miller, managing prin-
cipal of locally based Miller
Frishman Group.
“Apartments are clearly being
overbuilt. There is no question of
that,” Arsenault said following
Bruteig’s presentation.
“It’s like a train wreck in slow
motion,” Arsenault said.
He said the good news for the
Denver-area apartment market
is that homebuilders are not con-
structing as many homes to meet
housing demand.
“That’s the great reprieve,”
Arsenault said.
But it won’t last, he said.
What he described as a “nega-
tive trifecta” of overbuilding,
renters converting to homeown-
ers and a recession are in the
works in the coming years.
“The good news is that it will
Multifamily
Shown is Arapahoe Club.
