Ernest is an Executive Managing Director with ApexOne Investment Partners, a private equity firm investing in the multifamily sector. Ernest focuses on capital markets, fund strategy, financial administration, and investor communications. Ernest has extensive real estate experience with some of the industry-leading firms, including 17 years with PM Realty Group and 10 years with JMB Property Company.
Immediately following graduation from college, he managed a national multifamily student housing portfolio and was responsible for all facets of operations, including acquisitions, dispositions, construction, and finance.
Ernest is actively involved with National Multifamily Housing Council. He serves on the Advisory Council for Auburn University’s Master of Real Estate Development program and is also on the University of Florida’s Bergstrom Real Estate Center Advisory Board. Ernest previously served as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Lone Star Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and has been inducted into the MS Society’s National Fundraising Hall of Fame. Ernest graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Auburn University (1980).
Since 2000, the nation’s housing stock, both single and multi-family combined, has suffered from underbuilding to the tune of 5.5 million units. As a result, conservative estimates put the total undersupply of housing stock in the United States at 6.8 million units. The presentation will look at the severe housing shortage against the backdrop of population migration patterns and other economic drivers to better understand how we arrived at the housing crisis and what the outlook is for opportunistic investing in the future.
Speakers: Ernest Johnson
Join FLAIA’s upcoming panel discussing workforce housing led by leading owners of multifamily properties. The webcast will cover the bullish and bearish thesis on multifamily assets, that possess excellent demand drivers for a continuation of upside appreciation and income generation. The panel will do a deep into their analysis and provide a glimpse of the internal mechanisms utilized to assess risk and choose target acquisitions.
They will provide an overview of their different due diligence processes from previous property acquisitions around the United Stated. They will share why we chose their properties as foundational components to a broader multifamily portfolio strategy and discuss how the assets have performed through COVID on both the property and investment levels.
Speakers: Ana Bozovic, Ernest Johnson, and Gideon Pfeffer
On September 10, 2020 ApexOne Investment Partners introduced ApexOne Multfamily Special Situation Fund IV to the FLAIA community. The attendees were some of the first to see this presentation. The Fund IV stated objective was to capitalize on opportunities that might evolve during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The focus of Fund IV was acquiring properties from distresses seller and purchasing assets in markets that were overbuilt but had a clear path to recovery.
On February 18, 2021 ApexOne Sponsored an event with FLAIA where we explored how we analyze markets in the post pandemic world to capitalize on demographic and housing trends. Using proprietary data compiled with Balfour Beatty Communities, this data driven approach to investing has played a key role in the success of Fund IV.
On September 30, 2021 ApexOne Investment Partners will provide the FLAIA community an update on ApexOne Multifamily Special Situation Fund IV and its objectives for the remainder of 2021. Fund IV has raised over $200M and will have acquired nine properties by September 30th and placed over $170M of equity in $800m of multifamily assets in less than seven months. It has two additional properties under contract.
In addition to the update on the success of Fund IV, ApexOne will also discuss their outlook for the multifamily and housing markets going into 2022. We will also discuss some of the potential impacts of the proposed legislation going through Congress as it relates to investors, federal involvement with housing and taxation.
Speakers: Ernest Johnson
Inflation has become part of the economic conversation for the first time since 2008. In a time of low-interest rates, a recovering economy and job market, and a shortage of both single-family and multifamily housing, what could the impact of inflation be on the housing market?
Speakers: Ernest Johnson, Tim Burns, Michelle Connell, CFA, and Mike Price
The pandemic has created significant problems for certain classes of real estate and while multifamily real estate has fared better than most, the impact of Covid on other sectors has created issues in the debt markets and in household income that has had an impact on all sectors and the economy in general. Defaults and foreclosures leading to discounted pricing have not yet occurred to any significant degree and while additional weakness is anticipated when eviction moratoriums are removed, the multifamily market is expected to remain stable due to pent up demand, agency lending and significant liquidity attracted to the sector.
The reason the fallout from Covid has been limited so far is largely due to actions taken by lenders, asset managers and tenants to work cooperatively in developing payment plans and workout solutions in lieu of taking more extreme measures.
Speakers: Kristina Garcia, Susan Tjarksen, John Hansen, Ernest Johnson, and Michael B. Cohen
As we finish the 1st quarter of 2021, multifamily has performed well in these dynamic times. Our industry experts will discuss how they are navigating the new market realities concerning occupancy rates, rents, valuations, evictions and cap rates.
Additionally, ApexOne Investment Partners, Sunstone Property Trust and GSH Real Estate will provide insights into the new opportunities and numerous pricing dislocations facing the multifamily sector.
Speakers: Rob Jafek, Ernest Johnson, Gideon Pfeffer, and Sheryl Morehead
The Covid-19 pandemic has created an environment of uncertainty and increased speculation about the future of the real estate market. In an effort to identify opportunities and take advantage of the pricing dislocation in the multifamily sector, Apex One Investment Partners and Balfour Beatty Communities have created a proprietary database designed to understand and identify which markets could emerge and surge following the pandemic.
Speakers: Ernest Johnson, Aaron Cardwell, and Mike Price
ApexOne believes the current economic crisis will ultimately create increased demand in multifamily properties by residents. Job uncertainty, reduced income, eroded personal wealth, and a tightening of the credit markets may result in residents remaining in rental properties longer; furthermore, we believe as new households are formed, more will elect to rent than own.Housing and nourishment are the two primary "needs" of individuals and families regardless of the economic picture. Shopping, entertainment, travel, luxuries, and other optional "wants" will be sacrificed during times of financial hardships to keep food on the table and a roof overhead. The necessity of housing along with the aforementioned trends and projections leads ApexOne to continue to believe the multifamily industry is uniquely positioned to weather market downturns, rebound more quickly from the recession and sustain rent growth following the recovery period longer than other real estate sectors.
Speakers: Ernest Johnson
We are in the middle of one of the most challenging years the real estate market has witnessed in modern times. COVID-19 and civil unrest have ushered in significant uncertainty affecting real estate assets of all kinds. It is truly difficult to predict how asset prices will be evaluated and at what discount deals will begin to get done. There is a significant dispersion between buyer and seller expectations. The Federal bailout packages are replacing lost revenue and putting money directly into the system to delay price discovery. Our panel of experts will provide detailed insights on where and how they are navigating these unchartered waters and where they are placing their bets once for once the dust settles. They will also discuss how to play the court system to find opportunities.
Speakers: Jeremy Christensen, Ernest Johnson, Nate Kline, Sheryl Morehead, and Alberto Siblesz
Since the COVID - 19 crisis broke out, 40 million people became unemployed, businesses have shut down and global central bank have conducted swift and unprecedented monetary support to alleviate conditions brought on by the Pandemic. This panel will discuss in detail what is being seen in the different verticals of real estate and what to expect in the 3rd & 4th quarter with existing assets and special situations on the horizon.
Speakers: Chrystalle Anstett, Joseph W. DeMatteo Sr., Ernest Johnson, Tony Barkan, and Peter Foran
We will review the impact of COVID - 19 on Workforce Housing, Multi Family, Senior Living throughout the US. The panelists will also talk about the impact of lower interest expense while providing insight into their relationship with their lenders. We welcome audience participation and look forward to an interactive session.
Speakers: Nick Neri, Grant Cardone, Ernest Johnson, Nate Kline, and Chris Finlay
The coronavirus crisis has rapidly become a major part of Americans’ everyday lives and many of us are thinking about how the virus has and will continue to impact all sectors of the commercial real estate industry. Coronavirus is creating extreme uncertainty in the short-term with regards to cash flows. There will be a new normal defined by how people shop, work and play in the future. The question is, how will the new norm impact the commercial real estate sector?
Speakers: Nick Neri, Ernest Johnson, Chris Innes, Michael Mangione, and Bharat Sangani, MD
Join us for a panel on Investing in Real Estate to learn from our expert panelists while they provide an overview of what they are seeing today as we are move through the early stages of the impact from COVID-19. Each of the panelists will have an opportunity to speak about their strategy, performance expectations and their teams while they discuss their observations surrounding todays current events. Each panelist will provide investors and asset class managers with insight into their thought processes around risk mitigation and potential opportunity coming out of the current environment. As the dust begins to settle in their respective niches, our experts that have a long track record in the following areas of Workforce Housing, Hotels, Office Buildings, Insurance & Distressed Real Estate Investing will talk about how they are thinking about capturing the opportunities.
Speakers: Roberto Munoz, Ernest Johnson, Michael Mangione, Joseph W. DeMatteo Sr., and Matthew I. Kramer
ApexOne Investment Partners, LLC, a Texas limited liability company, is headquartered in Houston, Texas, with offices in Chicago, Illinois, Boca Raton, Florida, and Phoenix, Arizona, and, together with its affiliates, has substantial experience in real estate acquisition, syndication, financing, development, and disposition, as well as real estate transaction management. James A. Hearn, Ernest Johnson, Tim Burns, William Saul, and David Steele are the principals of ApexOne (the “Principals”).
Following on the success of ApexOne Growth & Income Fund I, LP, a Delaware limited partnership (“Fund I”), ApexOne Growth & Income Fund II, LP, a Delaware limited partnership (“Fund II”), and ApexOne Multifamily Fund III, LP, a Delaware limited partnership (“Fund III”), ApexOne has formed ApexOne Multifamily Special Situation Fund IV, LP, a Delaware limited partnership (the “Partnership”), to make investments in direct and indirect equity interests in multifamily residential properties, including those requiring capital infusion, repositioning, post-development leasing or which may be subject to a distressed sale, as well as indebtedness secured by such multifamily residential properties.
ApexOne Investment Partners has acquired 46 properties and invested over $1.5B in workforce and student housing communities over the last seven years. ApexOne prides itself on providing excellent living environments to its residents, high returns, and transparent communications to its investors while reducing the environmental impact of their properties. Their fund level returns on fully cycled properties have averaged over 28% and Over 94% of ApexOne’s investors have repeatedly invested in all three of their Funds.