possible contact from Archstone-Smith apartment brokers

[abwjms]

I sent this as email to the newest email list I had for our community (from 2009). Pls pardon the spam, but if there's something happening here then it's important to our community.

Over the last two days, I got two calls from 212-915-3763. After the first, which we didn't pick up and from which there was no message, I was curious, and a reverse lookup via Intelius showed it to be a NYC landline under the name "Archstone Smith". I picked up the second call, and they asked for a member of the household and said they were calling from Time Warner Cable. I said I had looked up their number and found it to be for Archstone Smith, but they insisted they were calling from Time Warner. I said we weren't um, interested.

* What does this have to do with Fairfield ?

Turns out Archstone-Smith is a high-end apartment developer organized as a real estate investment trust, holding rental properties in major metro areas across the US. They were also one of the primary causes of the Lehman bankruptcy in 2008 which almost froze global credit markets and helped precipitate the financial collapse and bailout of the last 5 years. They are now owned by Equity Residential and Avalon Bay. References at the end of this email.

The first and only conceivable reason why an entity like Archstone might be interested in contacting us is because of our Fairfield unit ownership. The fact that the caller concealed their identity suggests that they were trying to feel us out, about something.

In case you are openly contacted by Archstone Smith or a similar business expressing an interest in your Fairfield unit, or are felt out by someone unknown about it, please consider the following:

Concerns:

If these calls were from Archstone-Smith or a similar realty business, and if they have some interest in Fairfield units (two big "if's") I would have the following concerns:

** in general, the performance of the real estate business in collusion with the finance community, over the last five to ten years, has earned descriptions including "scavenger", "corrupt", "parasite" and "scumbag". Apologies to any of you who are affiliated with those industries and are honest businesspeople; some members of those industries were, and are, not. Given their history (see references) the burden of proof would be on Archstone to show that they do not deserve those labels.

** it's clear that values of Fairfield units have decreased since many of us purchased. For some of us, the appearance of an apparent "white knight", to relieve us of the "burden" of our units might be appealing. We would likely not "get our money back", but we'd allegedly be making the best of a "bad" situation. (Whether
that's true or not is different from someone claiming that it is.)

** our holdings are small ball for an entity like Archstone, owning high-end apartments in major metro areas across the US. On the one hand, this raises the question whether Archstone would have an interest in Fairfield, given its remote location and rural surroundings. On the other, maybe they're looking to diversify. (Or already are diversified, it'll need more research.)

** if we consider a scenario where an entity like Archstone buys up a significant portion of Fairfield units, that would raise questions about control of the condo association, as well as whether the market for our units would then serve our interests or not. If an entity with deep pockets initially spreads cash around buying up units, would it then effectively gain control over the pricing of other units ? Quite apart from the control it might gain over the community's structure - could a condo association simply be bought out (with unit owners effectively forced to sell, for example if a "majority" of some kind decides to sell) ?

A couple caveats:

1. I'm contacting you about a possibility here, nothing else as of now. I do not claim to -know- that Archstone or any other entity has an interest in my unit at Fairfield or any others, or in fact that they were who contacted me. Past a point, public records may be wrong, but up to that point they don't lie. Fairfield unit ownership is the likeliest reason why an entity like Archstone might be interested in contacting me.

2. If this sounds paranoid, sorry, it's 2013 and this is too often how things work these days. In this case, I'd rather alert my fellow owners and Fairfield corporation (HOA) members about someone who might be primarily interested in emptying our pockets and then be wrong, than to come late to the party and have to deal with harm to our community and its value already in progress. If nothing comes of this, then I'll be very pleased. After the fact.

3. I'm not particularly involved with either real estate or the business end of business, and if it shows, well, I beg forgiveness. I hope that won't be too much of a disadvantage should a scenario along these lines actually come to pass.

What I suggest:

Be alert to odd contacts from unexpected or unconvincing parties made to you or your family members which ultimately arrive at the question of your ownership at Fairfield. Or certainly any open contact from Archstone, or another real estate industry participant seeking to "help" you with your "burden". In the scenario I've proposed, working together would produce the best outcomes for all of us, rather than each of us negotiating individually with an entity whose primary intent would be to acquire as much property, and control, as cheaply as possible. If you get any information indicating that something along these lines may be afoot, please share it.

Thanks,

Johannes Sayre


References (more available):

http://investing.businessweek.com/resea ... pId=298222
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/17/reale ... i4U39NEx7A

In a deal closed this February, Archstone was sold by the remnants of Lehman to Equity Residential and Avalon Bay:

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/05/24/ ... 8-billion/
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/11/26/ ... 5-billion/
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/ ... 5P20121127
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archstone