Harrison Street Real Estate Capital, one of the largest real estate investment firms dedicated to the education, healthcare and storage sectors, has sold a 22-property student housing portfolio to Scion Student Communities, the joint venture formed by The Scion Group, GIC and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) for approximately $1 billion.
The portfolio transaction comprises approximately 12,000 beds across 18 states and involves 20 leading national universities. The properties were owned by five different Harrison Street funds in conjunction with multiple operating partners.
“This portfolio demonstrates our longstanding strategy of acquiring single assets or development opportunities with substantial value-add potential in or near large, leading universities, making key improvements to increase tenancy, and attracting world-class partners,” said Christopher Merrill, co-founder, president and CEO of Harrison Street.
In March 2017, Harrison Street also sold a portfolio of nine high-quality student housing properties to Scion Student Communities for $465 million. Harrison also recently acquired The Marq, a student housing facility at Marquette University in Milwaukee. The sale price was undisclosed.
Harrison Street is one of the largest private investors in the student housing market with more than 73,000 beds throughout the United States and Europe. Since inception in 2005, Harrison Street has invested $18 billion across its portfolio strategies with more than $9 billion across 232 properties in education and student housing assets alone. During this period, the firm has sold more than 96 student housing properties for a gross transaction value of $4.3 billion.
Harrison Street has approximately $12.8 billion in assets under management.
