A press release, issued late yesterday afternoon, says themerger, if approved, will be dovetailed by the structuring of ajoint venture, seeded with $450 million to $500 million of assets,some of which could be sold and gain applied to merger costs. It'sunclear if the disposition list is solely assets being picked upfrom the Charlotte, NC-headquartered Summit or a combination of thetwo companies' holdings. It is clear that Camden will hold minorityinterest in the JV and continue to manage the portfolio.

A spokesman for Houston-based Camden contact tells GlobeSt.comthat NOI will be less than 10% across the board, a longtime goaldue to analysts' concerns about over-exposure in Dallas, Houstonand Las Vegas. The Summit purchase will add 14,000 apartment units,50% of which are concentrated in Washington, DC and SoutheastFlorida, and another 3,700 under-construction units, with 60%rising in Washington, DC. Summit's other developments are locatedin Atlanta, Philadelphia, Raleigh, NC and of course, its homeport,where the only overlap exists between the two REITs.

"This strategic merger takes both Camden and Summit to the nextlevel in size and potential," Richard J. Campo, Camden's CEO andchairman, says in a press release. The contact says Camden expectsto shave three to five years from its growth plan with the mergerand become the nation's fifth largest multifamily public companywith a $5.7-billion total market capitalization and $2.9-billionequity market cap.