VMRK Vivmark Residential Common Shares of Beneficial Interest

Vivmark Residential is a United States–based publicly traded real estate investment trust that invests in apartments. As of August 2026, the company owned or had investments 184,000 rental apartments and had over 11,100 apartments under construction.

It is the largest owner of apartments in the United States and the 18th largest apartment property manager in the United States.

The company was formerly known as Equity Residential; it changed its name to Vivmark Residential in August 2026 upon its acquisition of AvalonBay Communities.

History

Equity Residential

The company had its origins in Equity Finance and Management Company, founded in 1969 by real-estate investor Sam Zell. In 1993, the company acquired a large portfolio of properties from Starwood Capital Group, owned by Barry Sternlicht and Bob Faith, in exchange for a 20% stake in the company. Starwood had acquired the properties via government auctions after the savings and loan crisis. On August 11, 1993, the company became a public company via an initial public offering. At that time, the company owned 22,000 apartments.

In 1997, the company acquired Wellsford Residential Property Trust for $620 million in stock and the assumption of $346 million of debt. It also acquired Evans Withycombe Residential for $625 million in stock and the assumption of $432 million in debt.

In 1998, the company acquired a portfolio of 5,774 apartments from Lincoln Property Company for $465 million. It also acquired Merry Land, which owned 34,990 units in the southeast United States, for $1.17 billion in stock as well as $656 million in debt and $270 million in preferred stock.

In 1999, the company acquired Lexford Residential Trust for $203 million in stock and the assumption of $530 million of debt. Lexford owned mainly one-story affordable housing units, rented to households with incomes between $25,000 and $35,000.

In January 2003, CEO Douglas Crocker retired. During his tenure, the company increased its ownership from 22,000 apartments to 227,000 apartments. In 2006, the company sold its Lexford affordable housing division, which included 27,115 apartment units, for $1.09 billion.

In February 2013, Equity Residential and AvalonBay Communities closed a $9 billion deal to acquire Archstone from Lehman Brothers. In 2013, the company sold 8,010 apartment units to a joint venture of Goldman Sachs and Greystar Real Estate Partners for $1.5 billion. In 2016, the company sold 23,262 apartments to Starwood Capital Group for $5.365 billion.

AvalonBay Communities

AvalonBay Communities was formed by the 1998 merger between Avalon Properties Inc. and Bay Apartment Communities Inc. The merged company owned 40,506 apartment units. Avalon Properties was formed in 1993 as a spinoff from Trammell Crow Company and was led by Richard Michaux, as chairman and CEO, and Chuck Berman, president, COO and board member. Bay Apartment Communities was formed in 1994 from the apartment business established by Mike Meyer in 1978. In February 2001, Bryce Blair was named CEO, and the additional role of chairman in January 2002. In 2011, Timothy J. Naughton was named CEO, and the additional role of chairman in January 2013.

Legal issues

Equity Residential was sued in a class action in 2017 due to allegations that it charged late payment fees in violation of California law.

In 2017, a lawsuit was filed by former tenants of Avalon at Edgewater, an AvalonBay community in Edgewater, New Jersey, who alleged that AvalonBay breached its duty of care by allegedly violating fire standards and safety procedures following a five-alarm fire at the community in 2015. The class action lawsuit was settled in July 2017.

In 2022, Equity Residential agreed to pay approximately $2 million to settle a lawsuit filed by Attorney General for the District of Columbia Karl Racine alleging that the company offered misleading rent discounts on a rent-controlled building in Washington, D.C.

In 2024, the Attorney General for the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit against AvalonBay alleging rent-fixing. In September 2025, a D.C. Superior Court judge rejected AvalonBay's motion to dismiss these amended claims, allowing the case to proceed.

In March 2025, a federal lawsuit filed by a tenant in New Jersey alleged a "bait-and-switch" scheme in which AvalonBay lured tenants with market-rate rents but later charged them substantial, undisclosed "Renewal Premiums" above market rate when they renewed their leases, exploiting the inconvenience of moving. In October 2025, the court granted in part and denied in part AvalonBay's motion to dismiss, allowing core parts of the case to move forward.

In April 2025, the New Jersey Attorney General filed a lawsuit against Equity Residential, AvalonBay, and nine other major landlords, alleging they engaged in an unlawful conspiracy by using RealPage's revenue management software and sharing competitively sensitive data, and agreeing to set rents at artificially high, violating federal and state antitrust laws.

In June 2025, the Equal Rights Center (ERC) sued AvalonBay for alleged housing discrimination at the AVA NoMa property in Washington, D.C. The lawsuit claims that since at least 2020, the property has falsely listed windowless rooms as bedrooms. As D.C. housing code requires bedrooms to have a window, and the local housing voucher program requires units to pass an inspection, this practice allegedly made a significant portion of the building's units—including 100% of its advertised three-bedroom units—unavailable to tenants using housing vouchers. The ERC alleged this constitutes illegal discrimination under D.C. law.