A Boston-based apartment owner just closed one of the biggest multifamily deals of the year, wrapping up $600 million in financing that both refinanced older debt and funded three new property purchases in a single 60-day sprint. The transaction pushed West Shore's national portfolio past 18,500 units across nine states, touching properties as far-flung as Richmond, Virginia and Columbus, Ohio.
Newmark arranged the $600 million loan package for West Shore, according to Connect CRE, with the money split between refinancing more than $250 million in existing debt and funding new acquisitions. The debt itself was structured as a $550 million senior mortgage CMBS note, issued through Citi Real Estate Funding with Deutsche Bank serving as trustee, plus a $50 million mezzanine loan layered on top, as detailed by Multi-Housing News.
The refinancing portion covered five stabilized properties in Richmond, Virginia; Clearwater, Florida; Waxhaw, North Carolina; and Lexington, Kentucky, per the same Connect CRE report. One of those, The River Lofts at Tobacco Row, is the Richmond property West Shore acquired in December 2024, according to Connect CRE's coverage of the deal's regional context.
Acquisitions Add 1,496 Units Across Three States
The financing also supported buying three more communities, adding 1,496 units in Columbus, Ohio; North Augusta, South Carolina; and Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Those purchases totaled a combined $332.9 million, according to the Connect CRE report, and included the 542-unit Palm Beach Gardens Apartments, the 674-unit Quarry in Columbus for $130.5 million, and the 280-unit Ironwood Apartments in North Augusta.
The Palm Beach Gardens purchase marked West Shore's 18th acquisition in Florida, expanding the firm's in-state footprint to 5,852 apartment units, per the Boston Real Estate Times. Florida represents the company's largest single-state concentration. Altogether the eight-property portfolio spans 3,241 units across Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, South Carolina and Ohio, with an overall occupancy rate of 93.4%, according to Connect CRE.
Value-Add Track Record Helped Secure Pricing
West Shore's asset management history on the refinanced properties appears to have played a role in the terms it secured. Across the five refinanced communities, the company invested $12 million in capital improvements between 2016 and 2024, which boosted average occupancy from 90.0% to 94.2% and increased net operating income by 54.9%, Multi-Housing News reported. The eight-property portfolio was appraised at $785.1 million with an average asking rent of $1,656 per month, and West Shore committed an additional $28.9 million toward future property renovations, per the same outlet.
That kind of stabilized performance mattered in a national CMBS market that was running hot. U.S. private-label CMBS issuance reached nearly $92.5 billion through September 2025, according to Trepp data cited by Multi-Housing News, pushing full-year 2025 volume toward $123 billion — the highest annual CMBS issuance since 2007. Strong investor appetite for CMBS bonds allowed Citi's financing team to price the deal at the tightest levels achieved for a multifamily single-asset single-borrower transaction during all of 2025, according to Newmark, as reported by Connect CRE.
Second Major Citi Refinancing in a Year
This was not West Shore's first time running this playbook with Citigroup. Twelve months earlier, in October 2024, the firm closed a separate $533 million single-asset single-borrower refinancing with Citigroup and Newmark covering nine Class A Sun Belt properties totaling 2,806 units, according to GlobeSt. The package covered properties across six Southeastern states. Bridge financing was retired across those properties. Connect CRE notes the September deal marked West Shore's second single-asset single-borrower transaction in 12 months.
Newmark Executive Vice Chairman Purvesh Gosalia and Transaction Manager Hayden Hedrick represented West Shore on the deal, per Connect CRE. West Shore President Lee Rosenthal, who also serves on the Board of Directors of the National Multifamily Housing Council, leads the firm alongside Chairman Steven P. Rosenthal, who founded West Shore in 2016 after serving as president and CEO of Northland Investment Corporation, according to West Shore's own company background.
Momentum Continued Into 2026
West Shore did not slow down after closing this deal. In early 2026, the firm closed another $630 million refinancing loan with Citi Real Estate Funding, this time across 13 Sun Belt properties totaling 4,077 units, according to Multi-Housing News. That later portfolio included 3,497 market-rate units and 580 affordable units spread across five states, underscoring how aggressively West Shore has kept recapitalizing its holdings.
Connect CRE reports that the $600 million transaction was ultimately ranked the third-largest U.S. multifamily transaction of 2025 by Newmark, and it went on to receive apartmentbuildings.com's AB 100 Transaction of the Year award, which recognizes creativity, skill and success in the multifamily industry. Whether rent growth across the newly acquired Sun Belt and Midwest markets can keep pace with West Shore's renovation plans remains an open question as the firm continues expanding its national footprint.
