Case Study: Strategic Planning Services for Investors Real Estate Trust

In 2016, IRET made the decision to pivot from a multifaceted real estate company with a mix of rental apartments, senior housing, medical office and other commercial assets, to a single-purpose multifamily REIT focused on the upper Midwestern markets. However, in Q1 2017, it was evident that the transformation to a pure-play rental apartment REIT was progressing slowly, and the Board retained RCLCO to facilitate a long-range strategic plan intended to assess the company’s plans, its capabilities, progress to date, and fine tune the go forward plan.

Key questions that RCLCO’s involvement was intended to address included:

1. Is there sufficient investor appetite for a publically traded multifamily REIT focused on the Midwest?
2. What geographic footprint and capital allocation model represents the best opportunity for growth and would enable the company to improve its performance in line with its peer group? Where should the company maintain a presence, and where should it expand over the next 10 years?
3. How will IRET evaluate dispositions through the transitory period?
4. What is the company’s desired balance sheet to support the transition?
5. How must the organization change to accomplish these goals?

To address these and other important strategic issues, RCLCO conducted an extensive discovery analysis, including a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) assessment looking at internal company competencies and potential deficiencies, and external market opportunities and challenges facing the company. As a result of the strategic planning effort, IRET has set its sights on growing in a narrow set of high-growth non-coastal/Midwestern markets and has put in place a new executive leadership team that is focused on delivering outsized results for its investors.

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