Cottonwood Communities has entered into a deal with a private owner to take over its largely Sun Belt apartment portfolio.
The Salt Lake City-based nontraded REIT signed a merger agreement with RealSource Properties, the companies announced. The deal would make RealSource a subsidiary of Cottonwood, and the combined company would have $2.8B in assets. 
“We believe this merger strengthens our platform through increased scale and diversification, positioning us to realize cost efficiencies and drive incremental revenue growth, as well as creating a pipeline of meaningful value-add opportunities,” Cottonwood CEO Daniel Shaeffer said in a statement.
As of March, Cottonwood owned 37 properties totaling 9,329 units across 11 states….