CHICAGO-Atlanta-based apartment investment group TriBridge Residential has signed up the locally based Pritzker Realty Group for a $75-million multifamily venture, which will focus on acquisitions in both the Southeast and Southwest areas of the country. TriBridge will provide the expertise on its current markets, including Florida, Georgia, Texas, Tennessee, North Carolina and Alabama.

The venture has already made three acquisitions in Austin, TX and Orlando. Further details of the purchases were not available.

Michael Tompkins, managing partner of TriBridge, tells GlobeSt.com that his dealings with Pritzker chairwoman/CEO Penny Pritzker started when the two served on the same political board in Washington, DC. “She’s got a reputation as a rainmaker,” Tompkins says. “She’s a very intelligent, intense and sharp young lady.”

He says multifamily investments, especially in the South, should outperform other asset classes for the next five-to-seven years. “If you look at the demographics, the South is getting more of its share in migration,” Tompkins says. Most of the South multifamily markets are doing well, though he says his firm has stayed away from south Florida, where condos converting to apartments are creating a glut of supply.

He acknowledges that competition has increased tenfold, and that prices have risen and returns sunk somewhat because of the popularity of apartments. “Multifamily should do well as it relates to risk versus reward. We’re not trying to swing for the fences, we’re trying to keep it in the park and just get reasonable investment returns.”