AUSTIN-A successful lease-up for the 2012-2013 school yearcombined with same-store NOI growth had executives atAmerican Campus Communities' Q3 2012 earnings callexcited about the numbers. The numbers reported at the Oct. 23called included a same-store NOI that increased by 4.1%year-over-year, which was the result of a 2.8% revenue increase andan increase in operating expenses of less than 2%.

A highlight of the quarter also revolved around acquisitions.Most notably, ACC acquired a 15-property, 6,579-bed portfolio fromCampus Acquisitions for $627 million, a deal thatclosed in September. Additionally, ACC acquired The Block, whichserves the University of Texas-Austin, and The Retreat, whichserves Texas State University in San Marcos, TX. On the developmentend, ACC delievered 6,703 beds to market at a cost of $381million.

The Campus Acquisitions buy prompted questions from analysts,most notable, about whether private players will continue to sellto the larger companies or would rather go the IPO route. AmericanCampus Communities' CEO William Bayless pointedout that IPOs aren't an option for every single student-housingplayer in the market. As such, "We think there'll continue to be avibrant pipeline of both one-off properties, smaller regionalportfolios and some of the larger ones like Campus Acquisitions,not to rule out that there couldn't be several companies that doundertake the IPO rounds," he adds.