by Stacy Jackson
June 8, 2024
The Cortland raid is part of the U.S. DOJ’s investigation into suspected anticompetitive practices within the multifamily residential sector.
The U.S. Department of Justice’s Federal Investigators are currently probing into an alleged price fixing scheme aimed at driving up rent, which has been traced back to Atlanta-based development firm Cortland.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation raided the Cortland’s Atlanta headquarters due to a scheme court documents revealed that “involved the use of algorithms by competitors in allegedly fixing prices.” The court stated that under the Sherman Act, “it is per se unlawful for competitors to join together their independent decision-making power to raise, depress, fix, peg, or stabilize prices; and the Supreme Court has made clear that ‘the machinery employed by a combination for price-fixing is immaterial.”
Cortland, which owns over 80,000 homes and apartments across the nation, confirmed in a statement obtained by 11Alive that Federal agents carried out a limited search operation. Armed with a court-sanctioned warrant, it as part of an ongoing probe spearheaded by the United States Department of Justice into suspected anticompetitive practices within the multifamily residential sector. The company stated that it was wholly cooperating with investigators, claiming, “neither Cortland nor any of our employees are ‘targets’ of that investigation.”
Northwest Atlanta tenant Torrin Strong told the outlet that his two-bedroom apartment is nearly $1,700 monthly and he’s currently dishing out around $500 more than he was over a few years ago.
As per Cortland’s corporate profile on LinkedIn, the company operates as a product-to-people company, encompassing multifamily real estate investments, development, and management under one roof. Cortland’s distinctive approach internalizes the vast majority of functions pertaining to multifamily development, design, construction, renovation, asset management, and ownership.
With a team of nearly 2,500 people across the U.S .and the world, Cortland is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, and London, UK. The company’s website reveals that it also has regional offices in Charlotte, Dallas, Denver, Greenwich, Houston, Orlando, and Phoenix, operating a build-to-rent (BTR) management and development platform in the UK.
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