Fortress Investment Group offloaded a massive Dallas apartment complex to a relatively unknown Michigan investor.
Two entities tied to Roger Thornburg purchased Eastgrove Apartments, at 11611 Ferguson Road, deed records show. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but the property was valued at $52.3 million this year, appraisal district records show.
Fortress, which was founded in New York and has lately been investing in North Texas, has owned the 656-unit property since 2021.
Eastgrove Apartments, built in 1984, offers one- and two-bedroom apartments as well as a pool, gym, tennis court and clubhouse. It’s about 14 miles northeast of Dallas, close to the Lyndon B. Johnson Freeway, the partial outer loop around Dallas.
Thornberg’s LinkedIn profile identifies that he’s president of Michigan-based Investors Equity Group and a managing member at A & A Equities and Thornberg Equity Group, both based in Michigan.
There’s not much information about his real estate activity online, but BizTimes Milwaukee reported that he purchased a Milwaukee apartment complex in June for nearly $58 million. Thornburg also aimed to develop high-end apartments in Lansing, Michigan, in 2016, the Lansing State Journal reported, but it doesn’t look like the project got off the ground.
Meanwhile, Fortress has been expanding its multifamily portfolio in San Francisco, where it acquired six apartment complexes for $32.9 million this spring.
It’s a tough time to be a multifamily operator in Dallas. The historic glut of deliveries that came online in the last two years pushed rental rates and occupancy levels down.
In May, Dallas-Fort Worth reported a 1.5 percent decrease in rents, year-over-year, according to Yardi Matrix. The Metroplex’s occupancy rate of 92.6 percent put it at third-lowest among the country’s 30 largest cities.
Industry experts hope the development slowdown will jumpstart the market and push rents back into the black by next year.
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