NEW YORK CITY—Candlebrook has branched out from multifamily into the student housing sector with the launch of a new subsidiary known as Letter 9. As the nucleus of the new platform, locally based Candlebrook said Wednesday it had partnered with Lubert-Adler Partners to acquire five student housing properties across four states for $230 million from Trinitas Ventures.

Candlebrook's president, Neil Rubler, says the new platform is an outgrowth of the company's experience with multifamily across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. He says the launch of Letter 9 represents “an important new phase that will give us the ability to grow our portfolio, expand our geographical reach and deliver exceptional housing and management services to new demographics and communities across the country.”

Leading Letter 9 will be managing director John DeRiggi, who previously served as EVP at GMH Capital Partners. He also served as president and CIO of the student housing division for the publicly traded GMH Communities Trust. 

Rhonda Smith has also joined the new division as SVP and director of operations. She had served in a similar capacity at College Park Communities, overseeing a portfolio that housed more than 56,000 students in 54 major university markets.

Totaling 3,400 beds, the first five acquisitions include two student housing properties in Indiana: the Dillon, serving the University of Indiana campus in Bloomington; and the Tyler in Indianapolis, serving Indiana University-Purdue University Indiana. There are also the Blake, serving Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, GA; the Wyatt, serving the University of Kentucky in Lexington, KY; and the James, serving Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA. Letter 9 will manage all five. Trinitas, headquartered in Lafayette, IN, continues to own properties in Illinois, Indiana and North Carolina, and has about 3,000 beds under development, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.