Tricon Residential kicked off a build-to-rent development in a suburb of Sacramento, California, marking the company’s first project to open since the January announcement that Blackstone would take it private for $3.5 billion.
Tricon Twelve Bridges, located at 1136 Victorian St., in Lincoln, California, consists of 161 single-family homes and duplexes. The development offers five unique floor plans with two-, three- and four-bedroom options. All units are equipped with solar power, optional electric vehicle chargers, tankless water heaters, fully fenced backyards and access to professionally managed on-site maintenance.
Property management and operations will be provided by Tricon. Regis Homes acted as the project’s developer with Woodside Homes providing general contracting services.
"We believe housing unlocks life’s potential and that families deserve access to high-quality homes in great neighborhoods,” Todd Rosa, vice president at Tricon, said in a statement.
The opening comes as access to single-family houses has become more difficult in the Sacramento area and nationally. Since the pandemic, the cost of single-family houses near the California state capital has risen more than 36%, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s house price index.
The rise in housing costs has been one factor behind estimates from the Mortgage Research Center that show home ownership is now more than $1,000 more expensive per month than renting in the Sacramento area. Driving that differential has been a lack of single-family construction, which has fallen more than 62% since highs in 2004, even as Sacramento’s population has expanded by nearly 21% over the same time, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
The situation has begun to garner the attention of local politicians, who praised the addition of the new Tricon development to the area’s lacking home inventory.
“Housing is one of our top priorities in Lincoln, and Tricon Twelve Bridges is a key new community that begins to address these housing needs,” Lincoln Mayor Dan Karleskint said in a statement. “This community contributes to the diversity of high-quality housing options in Lincoln. Families choosing this community can get the space they need and live in a brand-new home in a wonderful neighborhood close to jobs and our terrific schools.”
Asking rents at the development average $3,162, with concessions currently amounting to roughly two free weeks of rent, according to CoStar data. Rents in the overall market have risen 120 basis points over the past year with a vacancy rate that remained steady at 6.6% over that time.
Twelve Bridges represents the first development Tricon has opened since striking a deal in January to be purchased by Blackstone for $3.5 billion, a company spokesperson confirmed. The financial firm’s real estate investment trust completed the deal for Toronto-based Tricon in May at a 42% premium over its average quarterly share price and promised to invest an additional $1 billion in seeing through the company’s development pipeline of build-to-rent projects. At the time of the deal, Tricon had a portfolio of roughly 38,000 build-to-rent homes in the United States.
Tricon Twelve Bridges is expected to be the first of five developments totaling nearly 1,000 units slated to open this year. The company anticipates another 1,000 build-to-rent units to open in the summer of 2025.