Second Avenue announces JV partnership and property management agreement with Sculptor Real Estate

Tampa, FL Second Avenue, a full-service, institutional quality single-family rental platform (SFR), announced a strategic joint venture (JV) and property management agreement with Sculptor Real Estate (Sculptor), the real estate business of Sculptor Capital Management, Inc. (NYSE: SCU), a leading global alternative asset management firm specializing in real estate, credit, and multi-strategy investment products.  

Sculptor will contribute approximately 500 SFR homes to the JV and commit up to $100 million of additional capital to grow the JV’s SFR portfolio. Sculptor’s existing SFR portfolio covers eight of the eighteen major markets where Second Avenue currently owns SFR homes. 

"Sculptor is the fifth multi-billion dollar fund since early 2022 to partner with Second Avenue to acquire homes, and they join an esteemed group of legacy investors including Monroe Capital, Waterton, BLG Capital Advisors and others,” said Second Avenue CEO and founder Mike Rothman. “Today’s news further demonstrates investor demand for our platform which is purpose-built for the SFR industry – and clearly signals how much growth potential still remains for investors in the broader SFR space.” 

“The Sculptor joint venture will enable Second Avenue to expand into an additional five markets by strategically deploying capital over the coming years,” Rothman said.  

Sculptor’s real estate business invests in both opportunistic real estate private equity and real estate credit. Since 2003, Sculptor has raised approximately $8.1 billion of committed real estate capital and has completed 195 transactions across 28 diverse real estate asset classes, including within the SFR segment.  

“Second Avenue has an experienced, uniquely qualified team and a tremendous SFR platform with an end-to-end proprietary technology that effectively manages both maintenance and capital decisions,” said Steven Orbuch, founder and president of Sculptor Real Estate. "Second Avenue not only understands how these tech-enabled systems can help generate superior returns for investors, but also they know how to add value to SFR homes. We are excited to partner with Second Avenue on this new venture.” 

Despite facing COVID-19, inflation, and an exponential rise in interest rates, Second Avenue has consistently delivered superior risk-adjusted returns to its investors, because of its capability in multi-acquisitional channels, since starting SFR management in 2019.  As a result, Second Avenue has had a compound annual growth rate of acquiring homes of an impressive 139% since 2019. 

The Second Avenue team now totals 175 employees, which includes senior executive leadership deep in SFR experience, and an additional 70 dedicated technology experts focused on technology development for the platform. Second Avenue has its national headquarters in Tampa, along with operational offices across the markets. 

JLL Capital Markets represented Second Avenue in this transaction.