The Scion Group is pleased to announce the addition of 32 high-quality assets to its portfolio of student housing communities over the past 90 days. These transactions were completed in separate investment partnerships with a Brookfield Asset Management private fund and with PGIM Real Estate (part of the global investment management business of Prudential Financial). With these additions, Scion has become the largest owner/operator of purpose-built off-campus student housing globally.
“The communities we’ve added in just a few months represent nearly $1.7 billion of transaction value, as well as the establishment of new partnerships with two of the world’s most pre-eminent real estate investors,” said Robert Bronstein, President and co-founder of The Scion Group. “That’s a testament to Scion’s focus and track record, and also to the strength and resilience that our sector has demonstrated during the past two years. As excited as we are to reach the milestone of becoming the largest owner/operator of off-campus student housing, our growing scale and national footprint also enable us to make further investments in our operating platform and proprietary technologies, benefiting our entire portfolio.”
The communities add approximately 20,000 beds to Scion’s portfolio of self-managed communities under its world-class operations team. Scion’s total managed portfolio now comprises over 78,000 beds of student housing communities serving 74 college and university markets in 34 U.S. states. Scion employs over 1,700 team members and has approximately $8.0 billion of assets under management.
The joint partnership between Scion and PGIM Real Estate launched in September 2021. “The expansion of our partnership with Scion reflects our continued focus on investing in alternative property sectors with sophisticated operators and in alignment with our extensive joint venture partnership network,” said Darin Bright, Managing Director and Senior Portfolio Manager for PGIM Real Estate’s U.S. Core Plus Fund.
Brookfield partnered with Scion in November 2021 to acquire a portfolio of 27 properties with more than 17,000 beds. “We are excited to partner with a preeminent operator like Scion as we enter the U.S. student housing market in a meaningful way,” said Lowell Baron, Brookfield Real Estate Group’s Chief Investment Officer. “The market backdrop for student housing continues to strengthen and as the sector matures we are seeing opportunities to aggregate assets that require strategic capital to drive meaningful value.”