Land & Buildings adds Independence Realty Trust to its REIT portfolio in Q1

Activist investor Land & Buildings Investment Management LLC added multifamily real estate investment trust Independence Realty Trust Inc. to its investment portfolio in the first quarter, buying $10.5 million of shares, according to the firm's most recent Form 13F filing.

Position increases

Land & Buildings also added self-storage REIT Life Storage Inc. to its portfolio. On Feb. 5, fellow self-storage REIT peer Public Storage released an unsolicited proposal to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Life Storage. While Life Storage's board of directors declined Public Storage's proposal, it later agreed to be acquired by Extra Space Storage Inc. on April 3.

Land & Buildings bought back into Prologis Inc. during the quarter, buying $10.6 million of shares in the industrial REIT. The firm had sold its stake in Prologis the previous quarter.

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The investment firm nearly doubled its stake in hotel REIT Host Hotels & Resorts Inc. in the first quarter, boosting it to the firm's second-largest holding by market value as of March 31 at $43.4 million.

Land & Buildings upped its share count in shopping center REIT Retail Opportunity Investments Corp. by 15.7% during the quarter and increased its stakes in office-focused Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc. and multifamily REIT Aimco, its largest holding by market value at $72.8 million.

Position decreases

The firm sold its stake in multifamily REIT AvalonBay Communities Inc., valued at roughly $17.6 million in the prior quarter.

Land & Buildings shed three-quarters of its stake in Public Storage along with more than half of its share count in homebuilder D.R. Horton Inc. and communications REIT SBA Communications Corp.

The firm dropped 46.1% of its stake in theme park operator Six Flags Entertainment Corp. Land & Buildings issued a presentation in December 2022 pushing for Six Flags to explore a sale-leaseback for its theme parks, believing that the underlying real estate is worth more than the implied equity value of the company.

Land & Buildings sold roughly one-third of its share count in manufactured-home focused Sun Communities Inc. and single-family rental REIT American Homes 4 Rent while also selling part of its stakes in Rexford Industrial Realty Inc., Ventas Inc., Caesars Entertainment Inc., SmartRent Inc. and Apartment Income REIT Corp.

Sector exposure

By sector, Land & Buildings held the highest exposure to residential REITs as of March 31, valued at $158.0 million in aggregate. The firm's holdings in multifamily REITs accounted for $119.6 million of the residential REIT total, while its single-family rental and manufactured home REIT positions totaled $20.0 million and $18.4 million, respectively.