Olen Properties closed 2025 with a bang, completing the largest single-property apartment acquisition in its history, for a 636-unit complex in the Atlanta area.
The Newport Beach-based developer, among Orange County’s largest private real estate investors, last month purchased IMT Deerfield, a garden-style rental complex near Alpharetta, Georgia, an area considered the most affluent suburb of Atlanta. An affiliate of Los Angeles-based investor IMT Capital was the seller.
Terms of the deal were not immediately disclosed by the parties involved in the transaction, but property records indicate that the complex traded hands for about $180 million, or roughly $283,000 per unit.
Olen President Igor Olenicoff confirmed to the Business Journal that the deal marked the largest single-property rental deal for his company, whose apartment portfolio is now approaching 18,000 units.
“We are quite pleased with our successful acquisition of this rare garden project located in the City of Milton, a high-end neighborhood with excellent schools and shopping, large and expensive homes, and adjacent to the city of Alpharetta,” Olenicoff told the Business Journal.
Southeast Push
Olen, founded in 1974, has added close to 5,000 units to its rental portfolio since 2017, with most of its additions in the Southeastern U.S., an area where apartment rental growth and valuations have vastly exceeded the national average over that time.
Its combined portfolio in Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina and North Carolina now top 10,000 units. Olen also owns thousands of apartments in Arizona and Nevada, as well as one Orange County complex in Brea.
The area around Alpharetta—dubbed the “Technology Capital of the South,” and counting numerous Fortune 500 companies with operations in the region—is “a most desirable suburb, with excellent shopping and entertainment, businesses and job growth,” Olenicoff said. “In short, we are quite pleased with this acquisition.”
The property’s been renamed Magnolia at Milton. The 60-acre property lists units with an average size of 1,075 square feet and a monthly average rent of about $1,800, according to the property’s marketing materials.
The complex, located about 5 miles north of downtown Atlanta, is about 97% occupied.
Rare Find
The purchase marks a busy end to an otherwise quiet year for Olen on the acquisition front.
“It was a slow year for most all real estate companies for obvious reasons,” said Olenicoff, whose wealth the Business Journal estimates at around $10 billion.
“The main reason has been companies with good projects or land have been sitting on them and not offering them for sale, (and) banks have been extending their loans, and waiting for cap rates to come down,” Olenicoff said.
“That has not happened yet, and our acquisition was a good find.”
Local Redevelopment
The area along Red Hill Avenue, which straddles Irvine, Tustin and Santa Ana, has seen an abundance of apartment and industrial development in recent years, with older office properties frequently demolished to make way for the new projects.
Olen Properties has taken a slightly different approach for one 1980s-era office complex it owns in the area, Warner Corporate Park.
The 76,000-square-foot office park at the intersection of Warner Avenue and Red Hill, across the street from the Tustin Legacy mega-development, is undergoing redevelopment to convert the site into a multi-tenant flex space project.
The 11-building complex is being reworked to accommodate individual units ranging from 700 to 2,000 square feet. Four buildings are being demolished, while seven others are being gutted as part of the redevelopment, which will also include new landscaping and other tenant amenities.
“The overall square footage is increasing; more importantly, it is a conversion from office space to flex space, which is in high demand in Orange County,” Olen founder Igor Olenicoff said.
Completion of the project is scheduled for June.
