Apollo-owned firm taps major banks for loan backing nearly 5,000 Sun Belt apartments

Lenders are marketing a $629 million commercial mortgage‑backed securities offering backed by 11 Bridge Investment Group multifamily properties — an uncommon securitization in which Bridge, typically an active lender, is instead the borrower.

Bridge has a significant lending arm through its debt strategies division, which originates multifamily loans nationwide and packages them into bonds sold to investors. The firm has completed 17 such securitized deals, making it one of the more active issuers in that segment.

This transaction flips that role, with Bridge tapping the CMBS market for its own portfolio — and offering an early indication of how owner Apollo Global Management plans to deploy the firm following its acquisition last year.

The deal arrives as one of the first major capital markets moves since Apollo’s $1.5 billion purchase of Salt Lake City-based Bridge, signaling that the combined platform may lean more heavily on structured debt markets to finance its apartment holdings.

The transaction, Bridge Commercial Mortgage Trust 2026-MF, is expected to close on June 18, according to Fitch Ratings’ analysis of the offering.

Bridge did not respond to CoStar News’ request for comment.

Wells Fargo Bank, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley Bank and Atlas SP Commercial Mortgage are co-originating the loan. Loan proceeds will refinance roughly $469.4 million in existing debt, as well as return $152.8 million in equity to Bridge.

Bridge, founded in 2009, has grown into one of the country’s larger real estate investment firms, managing roughly $121 billion as of December, according to Fitch. The firm’s portfolio includes more than 90,000 residential units spanning traditional apartments, workforce and affordable housing, and senior living properties.

The garden-style apartment properties total 4,956 units across seven Sun Belt markets: Dallas, Texas; Atlanta, Georgia; Las Vegas, Nevada; Phoenix, Arizona; San Diego, California; and Orlando and Tampa, Florida.

Bridge acquired the properties between 2018 and 2021 for more than $835.7 million and has since invested about $94.9 million, or about $19,147 per unit, in capital improvements, according to the Fitch presale report. Bridge invested in the current portfolio through its fourth multifamily fund.

The largest property being refinanced is the 1,183-unit Chapel Hill apartments in Lewisville, Texas, which accounts for one-fourth of the allocated loan amount.

The portfolio generated $52.6 million in net operating income over the 12 months ended in April. Occupancy stood at 89.1% as of May, down from a 2021 peak of 95.3%. Average monthly in-place rent was $1,459 per unit, according to Fitch.

Post-pandemic multifamily demand was eclipsed by a surge in supply between 2023 and 2025, overwhelming demand for high-quality apartments, particularly in Sun Belt markets, according to CoStar analysis. This imbalance eroded pricing power, as new units continue to outpace absorption — the difference between units occupied and vacated — in many areas.

But several Sun Belt markets where the Bridge properties are located are seeing meaningful pullbacks in new completions, according to CoStar data. Under-construction volume also fell sharply in the first quarter, including declines of more than 6,700 units in Dallas.

If sustained, this pullback in new supply should support the absorption of excess inventory in overbuilt Sun Belt markets, helping stabilize vacancy and supporting a return to stronger rent growth by early 2027, according to CoStar analysis.