Guardian Real Estate Services Closes Landmark Affordable Housing Preservation Deal

Guardian Real Estate Services, a Pacific Northwest leader in multifamily operations, development, and investment, has completed a landmark $497 million portfolio acquisition of 15 properties spanning Oregon and New Mexico - marking one of the largest-ever preservation transactions in the affordable housing sector.

Orrick has a long history of working with Guardian and other project sponsors as bond counsel, financing the development and construction of affordable housing projects, several of which were among the projects that were part of this acquisition and financing.

Orrick advised Guardian on the $395 million acquisition of 13 affordable multifamily rental projects across Albuquerque, NM, and Portland, OR. Our team advised on all aspects of this transaction, including structuring a joint venture with the National Equity Fund (a JP Morgan fund manager) and negotiating a $272 million credit facility from Fannie Mae, arranged by JLL.

The transaction received national media coverage, including from Law360, Multi-Housing News, Portland Business Journal, Yahoo Finance and others.

THE IMPACT

The landmark deal safeguards more than 3,000 affordable housing units that were at risk of conversion to market-rate housing, ensuring long-term housing stability for thousands of residents.

THE TEAM

The Orrick team was led by Katie Jones, Mike Schrader, Daniel Rothberg, Taylor Barokh and Emily Lewis, and included Eric Wall, Jerry Kyle, Greg Blonde, Debbie Abernathy, Lauren Hoops, Katie Quintanilla, Steven Truong, Raiko Kaneshige-Haller.