today on Forbes this ex- shoe salesman built a $5.5 billion fortune in aging apartment buildings it's 2 hours before the inauguration of his firm Morgan properties gleaming new headquarters in kah hakin Pennsylvania and Mitchell Morgan still hasn't cleared out his old office the 70-year-old Real Estate Mogul pulls out a weathered document from 1985 a bond offering for his first deal to buy three apartment buildings he says quote I just found this I was cleaning out my office yesterday I borrowed $55 million and I was Off to the Races I owned 14400 units three apartment complexes
this is one of them these days his Morgan properties spans more than 95,000 units across 19 States about half of those are majority owned by the firm with the rest split with outside investors it's still enough for Morgan properties to now rank as the third largest owner of apartments in the country behind fellow billionaire Bob Faith's Greystar and publicly traded mid- America apartment communities and it's enough for Morgan to land on the 2024 Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans for the first time at number 240 worth $5.5 billion Morgan's firm success has also elevated
his profile he joined the group backing Josh Harris's $6 billion do purchase of the NFL's Washington commanders last year and is making a name for himself in Philadelphia's philanthropic scene as a major donor to Temple University and the Children's Hospital of Pennsylvania he's earned his success by investing in older apartment buildings in midsize cities and quickly renovating them to increase rents while many investors have poured into the fast growing metropolises of the Sun Belt Morgan has taken the opposite tack acquiring portfolios in less fashionable places such as Reading Pennsylvania which is the birthplace of Taylor
Swift and Rochester New York where his firm is the largest landlord after buying more than 18,000 units for $1.9 billion in 2019 as the postco boom subsided in cities such as Atlanta and Nashville the nation's fastest rising rents are now found in the likes of Indianapolis Columbus and fville all places where Morgan properties has a presence Morgan properties is privately owned he says quote we're buying in markets that people don't want to buy in and Wall Street doesn't have to tell us what to do because we don't care what Wall Street says we bought a
big portfolio in Indiana we bought a big portfolio in Ohio we're the largest owner in Rochester New York the Market's great people are everywhere Morgan largely invests in what's known as Class B Apartments older properties that Target tenants with lower incomes than those attracted to luxury buildings one complex he owns in Elmwood Park New Jersey dates to 1950 while while they might not be as valuable as newly built top-of-the-line Apartments Morgan's properties tend to provide more stable cash flow and suffer fewer swings during recessions when tenants are priced out of more expensive buildings opt to
downgrade Morgan credits his success to a Frugal approach he honed paying his way through college at Temple University while working for his father's shoe store his father a World War I vet who had opened several shoe stores made enough money to buy a home in 1959 4 years later later his father went bankrupt for the first time it happened again when Morgan was in 11th grade forcing the family to sell the house and leaving his father with a single store recalling his family's early hardships and his dad's brush with bankruptcy he says quote never bet
the ranch because my father did I buy existing Apartments my life is boring we're going to stick to our boring knitting business if you want to have something more interesting in life get a hobby for full coverage check out Gak talk piece on forbes.com this is Kieran Meadows from Forbes thanks for tuning in [Music]
