The real estate investment firm finds what it considers are promising apartment properties poised for future appreciation. Principals acquire the properties, focus on customer service and improvements, then sell them when the time is right. Investors shoulder the risk and reap the rewards.
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One goal for the business was growing transactions from $400 million to $1 billion a year. “Now we’ve done that,” Connor said.
The next goal: $2 billion a year by the year 2024.
The transactions have to make sense, though.
“While it’s not absolutely guaranteed; we don’t have to do it,” he said. “I think our chances are extremely good that we’ll achieve that.”
The Connor Group’s history is fairly well known by now. Always based in the Dayton area, the business was founded in 1992.
The firm has grown from $0 to more than $2.2 billion in assets, owning and operating luxury apartments in 14 markets, including Austin, Nashville, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Chicago, Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham and beyond.
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Connor agreed that the company looks for what it considers quality properties in big and growing cities, close to high-tech, education or health care employment hubs.
“It’s not one thing or two things,” he said when asked about the company’s strategy. “It’s eight or ten different strategies working in unison together that results in us significantly outperforming any of our peers in the industry.”
Could the company go international or invest in properties closer to Dayton?
“First of all, we love Dayton,” said Connor, a longtime Dayton-area entrepreneur. “So if we get opportunities to buy in this area, we absolutely will.”
But the company’s strategy is a domestic one, he said. “Distance kills,” he says.
“We think we can get our growth from a billion to two billion in those 14 (current) markets,” he said. “Maybe we have to add one or two more. But literally that’s it. We’re in great markets with tremendous opportunity.”
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