CHARLOTTE, NC—Add Campus Crest Communities Inc. to the ranks of REITs facing major changes at the hands of activist shareholders. The locally based student housing REIT, which on Monday announced it was exploring strategic alternatives, would have a new CEO and four new board members under a proposal from stockholder Clinton Group Inc.

In a letter to CCG's board that was made public Monday evening, Joseph A. De Perio, senior portfolio manager at New York City-based Clinton Group, said his company had partnered with Campus Evolution Villages, a student housing operator that over the past three years has had “tremendous success turning around sub-performing assets in markets with similar characteristics to those of CCG." He wrote that CEV's New York City-based executive team of CEO Andrew Stark and CIO Evan Denner is “a change-agent in the industry and has the proven track record, experience, relationships and ability to innovate and succeed.”

De Perio originally proposed a slate of new directors for CCG this past December, and reiterated Clinton's intention to reconstitute the REIT's board in Monday's letter. In tandem with a revamped board, “we would propose that Messrs. Stark and Denner immediately be hired to occupy the executive suite of Campus Crest and bring with them their cohesive, in-place team of operating executives,” he wrote Monday.  The new management team would brings its property-level strategy to CCG “and work with existing employees to ensure a seamless transition to Campus Evolution Villages' best practices and proven operating processes and procedures,” he added.  

CCG, which currently controls 86 student housing communities spanning more than 46,000 beds, did not respond to GlobeSt.com's requests for comment Tuesday. The company on Monday said its board had authorized exploring “a broad range of strategic, operational and financial alternatives,” and that Moelis & Co. and Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP, respectively its financial and legal advisors, were assisting with the exploration. It also announced that CIO Aaron Halfacre had been named president.

The company in November began a major repositioning, suspending all new construction and putting its development pipeline on the market. At that time, cofounder Ted Rollins resigned as CEO, and CFO Donnie Bobbitt also stepped down, with lead independent director Richard Kahlbaugh named interim CEO and non-executive chairman. A recent SNL Financial report on analyst coverage of the REIT sector during 2014 found that among analysts who shared their data with SNL, CCG received the largest number of downgrades, occurring mainly after the November shakeup.

Monday's developments could elicit a more positive response from analysts, however. Wunderlich Securities analyst Craig Kucera on Tuesday upgraded his recommendation on CCG from “hold” to “buy.” He cited “a very credible and thoughtful proposal from an activist shareholder, which could be superseded by the successful completion of 'strategic alternatives' by existing management.”