1. What is the nature of your business?
Avenue Living is a vertically integrated real-estate owner and operator with over C$6 billion in assets under management (AUM). Established in 2006, we acquire, reposition, and manage real estate across Canada and the United States using 4 investment vehicles. Centered around the ethos of “Investing in the Everyday,” we actively manage Workforce Housing multi-family residential, self-storage and farmland real estate assets. We consider ourselves stewards of capital — our goal is to create long-term value and drive returns through our proven investment strategy.
2. What do you primarily use the capital raised for?
Capital raised is primarily used to expand our multi-family residential, self-storage, and farmland portfolios through strategic acquisitions in our target markets. Avenue Living also invests in high-grading the quality of our existing assets, continuously seeking to enhance our portfolio's quality and performance through value-add capital initiatives.
3. Why do you choose to raise money from EMDs rather than on your own?
Partnering with EMDs for capital-raising efforts is a strategic choice for Avenue Living. EMDs provide access to a broad network of investors actively seeking private market opportunities in specific asset classes, including alternatives. This enables Avenue Living to focus on what it does best, acquiring and repositioning real estate assets to drive operational performance and, ultimately returns.
EMDs bring a deep understanding of the exempt market regulatory landscape, ensuring compliance with relevant regulations governing private market security offerings. This enhances credibility and instills trust among potential investors, allowing for the effective management of due diligence processes while streamlining capital-raising efforts. The combination of broad investor networks and robust regulatory compliance capabilities make EMDs valuable partners in Avenue Living’s fundraising efforts.
4. Why stay a private company instead of becoming a public company?
Operating as a private entity, Avenue Living benefits from enhanced flexibility in equity capital-raising initiatives. Public entities must contend with prevailing market sentiment and the need to focus on short-term results. Operating as a private entity also allows Avenue Living to cultivate and deepen investor relationships, fostering a committed investor base and focus on its long-term strategic vision.
Additionally, Avenue Living’s private market investment vehicles offer investors the opportunity to strategically gain targeted exposure to real asset classes, with return profiles closely aligned to the fundamentals and performance of underlying assets. Public markets, on the other hand, can experience periods of volatility unrelated to the performance of the underlying assets, often influenced by broader market sentiment rather than fundamental asset performance, where returns diverge from intrinsic values. As a result, private market investments can present opportunities to enhance risk-adjusted returns and overall portfolio diversification.
5. Over the past several years, many changes have been made to the exempt market rules and regulations. What is the biggest change you have seen and explain how it has affected your business.
Among the most significant regulatory changes in recent years has been the advancement of Client-Focused Reforms (CFR), specifically surrounding enhanced Know Your Product (KYP) requirements. These reforms emphasize the need for dealers and advisors to maintain a strong understanding of the products they recommend to clients and place in client account – This shift has transformed the due diligence and reporting process for private market issues, necessitating more detailed and transparent reporting.
Avenue Living has always taken pride in its commitment to transparency and robust reporting practices, which has minimized the impact of these changes on our business, while placing a further emphasis on the necessity of timely dissemination of information. These principles have remained central to our business practices, aligning with our strong focus on maintaining strong relationships with our capital partners.
6. What do you think of the reporting regime in the private markets?
The reporting regime for private markets is often criticized for its lack of standardization and transparency, however, as private markets grow in prevalence comprehensive reporting practices are becoming increasingly essential to meet investors' expectations. The lack of standardization places the onus on issuers to provide timely, reliable, and transparent reporting to investors – Transparent reporting practices are crucial for gaining investor trust and instilling confidence, enabling efficient capital allocation decisions. This, in turn, fosters the growth of private markets, creating a more efficient and trustworthy landscape, and ultimately driving capital flows.