Brenda Cioce is CEO and president of RHO Residential
By Joshua Burd
The new owners of the former Veris Residential Inc. portfolio have picked RHO Residential LLC to manage the collection of more than 6,000 apartments across the Northeast.
The assignment, which follows the $3.5 billion acquisition by a group of well-known investors, spans 15 properties across the Northeast with a significant concentration in Hudson County. That includes 3,783 units across seven communities in Jersey City, where Veris was headquartered, as well as additional assets in the $2 billion, 200-acre Port Imperial district along the Hudson River waterfront sections of Weehawken, West New York and Guttenberg.
RHO Residential’s management portfolio now comprises just under 12,000 apartments across 40 properties, having doubled in size as with the addition of the former Veris holdings. The engagement also represents a full-circle moment for RHO Residential CEO and President Brenda Cioce, who has years of experience with many of the buildings that the firm will now manage on behalf of the consortium, which is led by Craig Solomon of Affinius Capital in partnership with Vista Hill Partners, a group headed by Bradford Klatt and Jonathan Kushner.
“As we evaluated the long-term operating strategy for this portfolio, it became clear that RHO Residential offered a unique combination of institutional management expertise, operational depth and longstanding familiarity with these Class A properties,” Klatt said. “Having worked with Brenda and her team over many years, we have a strong appreciation for their culture and consistency — particularly their commitment to investing in people across the organization. We believe RHO is exceptionally well positioned to guide these properties through this transition while building on the strong foundation already in place.”
RHO is also assuming management of more than 182,000 square feet of retail, including 90,900 square feet at Riverwalk at Port Imperial, providing a foray into the asset class. The assignment also supports its move into the greater Boston metropolitan area, where several of the properties are located.
The firms noted that Cioce joined the former Roseland Property Management in 1998, later serving as president of property management and continuing in that role after the company’s acquisition by Mack-Cali Realty Corp. in 2012. That latter would go on to rebrand as Veris Residential, while Cioce in 2019 founded RHO Residential with a focus on institutional-quality operations, leadership development and the resident experience.
The transition will also reunite many longtime colleagues who previously worked together at Roseland, which was founded by Klatt and partners Carl Goldberg and Marshall Tycher. RHO is onboarding 136 former Veris employees across on-site, regional and corporate functions, increasing its total workforce to 250.
“Many of the communities — and the people who support them — have been central to my career for nearly three decades,” Cioce said. “Having worked across much of this portfolio and alongside a large number of the professionals now returning, there’s a strong sense of familiarity and alignment. Reuniting this talent at scale creates a real opportunity to raise the bar. We’re grateful for the trust Affinius and Vista Hill has placed in us and ready to build on what’s already been established.”
Veris Residential goes private after $3.5 billion acquisition by Affinius, Vista Hill consortium
