InvenTrust Closes UHC Student Housing Portfolio Sale

InvenTrust CEO Thomas McGuinness. Photo courtesy REIT.com.

BETHESDA, MD–At the start of the year, Oak Brook, IL-based InvenTrust Properties Corp. announced it was selling off its student housing platform–University House Community Group–to become a pure-play multi-tenant retail REIT. The buyer of the platform was a partnership among Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, GIC Pte. Ltd. and the Scion Group LLC.

For CPPIB and GIC, the deal was a foot in the door into the student housing space. And they would be entering the sector with an indisputably high-quality portfolio: 18 stabilized student housing communities and four in development, all close to major university campuses and comprising nearly 13,000 beds. Under the terms of the agreement,  Scion would manage and operate the portfolio, and own 5% of UHC, with CPPIB and GIC each owning 47.5%.