{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Bisnow Reports ","title":"First Draft Live: Cortland Founder and CEO Steven DeFrancis — One Of America’s Biggest Landlords Is Rethinking The Sun Belt","html":"<iframe width=\"100%\" height=\"180\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless src=\"https://share.transistor.fm/e/64cda9be\"></iframe>","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":2077,"description":"Cortland built one of the largest apartment portfolios in the country on the Sun Belt boom. Now it’s moving its money north. The Atlanta-based firm closed a $1.6B all-cash deal for 19 Elme communities, most of them in greater Washington, as federal job cuts pushed the region’s rents into negative territory.\n\nBisnow Editor-in-Chief Mark Bonner sits down with Cortland founder and CEO Steven DeFrancis to talk through the good, the bad and the ugly of that bet. Why buy D.C. while it’s shedding jobs? And how does one of the nation’s biggest landlords set rents after paying $18M to settle its piece of the RealPage rent-pricing class action?","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/ttezZO5D1A8oYeP639GpAgfiRSaO6vDT1ZNnLXkD28U/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS8xNGE1/MWI5NWQ0ZDU5YmFm/ZDdhOTRlZTE0NGJl/MTIyYi5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}