Why Piping Rock?
Experience
Piping Rock has been investing in Midwest multifamily real estate since 2006. We are narrowly focused on value-add multi-family assets located in highly targeted Midwestern markets we know well, with an emphasis on markets in Ohio, Northern Kentucky and Indiana. This region is within a one day's drive of 60% of the U.S. population, and it benefits from accelerating trends around onshoring, reshoring, and an increased emphasis on time to market. Nevertheless, new supply of multifamily housing in many of these markets relatively muted.
Piping Rock's principals have deep experience in commercial real estate acquisitions, dispositions and property management, as well as in cross-border structured finance, equity and debt private placements, equity joint ventures and loan sales and syndications, including almost $1 billion in privately placed debt and equity for commercial real estate across numerous cycles.
Strategy
We seek to identify markets in the Midwest that are overlooked by institutional capital, yet where economic conditions and growth prospects are favorable, and risk can be mitigated by buying assets at a significant discount to replacement cost and/or full value. We target 100-200 unit garden style apartment properties with pitched roofing, centralized HVAC systems and desirable amenity packages where we can add value with interior and exterior upgrades and enhanced property management technologies. We aggressively pursue assets that under managed, under capitalized, or suffer from deferred cosmetic maintenance, all of which can lead to under performance and distress. We are keen observers of capital flows, and we reserve special enthusiasm for dislocated/mispriced out of favor markets that are showing clear patterns of recovery.
Vertical Integration
In order to maximize the value of these properties, we employ a vertically integrated and highly scalable management platform with internal property management teams dedicated to each asset. We use the latest technology to maximize efficiency and transparency, including a paperless accounts payable system where all invoices are automatically scanned and uploaded to our general ledger, allowing for remote review and approval. After approval, all bills are paid electronically, and all payment records are stored digitally. Our experienced property management teams have been working together for years, with almost no turnover
Discipline
We are a sophisticated investor, but our focus is on fundamentals, not agressive capital structures or financial engineering. We employ fundamental, time‐tested underwriting and valuation techniques to make purchase decisions, including the use of subscription-based market analytics services to complement our own rigorous internal research and analysis. This approach helps us validate our asset-level investment thesis, as well as to analyze and quantify downside risks for each prospective investment prior to closing.
In addition, we engage in extensive asset‐level due diligence primarily from a physical standpoint using our internal property management teams as well as professional third party engineers and architects. We also evaluate asset-level risks from a legal, regulatory and local market perspective. Finally, we are a long-term, conservative investor, and we prefer to employ long-term fixed-rate debt to mitigate capital markets risk.
Track Record
We have consistently created value for our investment partners. Since 2006, we have grown average portfolio NOI by over 100% and generated an average portfolio equity multiple of 5.37x. On many of our assets, we have returned 100% of capital plus significant tax-deferred gains through refinancing proceeds alone, rather than through asset sales. Asset sales generate an immediate income tax liability, whereas refinancing proceeds do not. The current portfolio debt service coverage ratio is over 2.25x, and we have never been late on a mortgage payment.