A joint venture between The Prager Group (“Prager”) and The Ardent Companies (“Ardent”) announces the sale of just under 3,000 single-family rental homes to VineBrook Homes Trust, in a deal totaling $350 million. VineBrook, a private real estate investment trust, will acquire the companies’ entire portfolio of single-family residential assets.

Prager was established in 2009 and formed a Co-GP joint venture with Atlanta-based Ardent, an asset management firm focused on debt and equity investment, in January 2017. Since the initial partnership with Ardent in 2017, Prager has sourced and managed additional portfolios to continue growth under the joint venture and realized strong investor returns with the portfolio sale.  

“We are thrilled to see the success of our partnership with The Prager Group,” said Matt Shulman, CEO at Ardent.  

With the majority of units spread across the southeast, the deal allows VineBrook Homes Trust to expand its presence in the Southeast. In addition to the assets, Prager agreed to sell the operating company as well that was established in 2010.

“Today marks an exciting day in our company's evolution and the success of this deal would not be possible without all of the hard work by everyone on the Prager Team and our partnership with and support from Ardent,” said Merek Shoob, Managing Director of The Prager Group. 

The deal, which went under contract in October of 2021, originated earlier last year when VineBrook approached Prager in its efforts to grow their single-family rental portfolio. Raymond James served as financial advisor throughout the transaction process.