Vivmark Residential Takes Shape as Equity Residential and AvalonBay Merger Closes

AvalonBay’s chief executive and finance chief run the combined company from a board split evenly between the two predecessors, while Equity Residential’s longtime leader exits with severance.

August 18, 2026

Equity Residential and AvalonBay Communities completed their merger of equals on August 17, 2026, and the surviving company began operating immediately as Vivmark Residential. The combined apartment owner trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker VMRK beginning August 18, retiring the EQR symbol Equity Residential had carried for decades.

The legal architecture kept Equity Residential’s corporate shell as the surviving parent. The Maryland real estate investment trust amended its declaration of trust to adopt the Vivmark name, while AvalonBay ceased to exist as a separate registrant. AvalonBay first contributed assets to ERP Operating Limited Partnership in exchange for operating partnership units carrying equivalent fair market value, then merged into a wholly owned subsidiary that was subsequently folded into the partnership itself. ERP Operating survives as the operating vehicle and remains a co-registrant, preserving the partnership through which unitholders hold their interests.

AvalonBay stockholders received 2.793 Vivmark common shares for each share held, with cash covering fractional amounts, and the company issued roughly 400 million shares to complete the exchange. Shareholders had approved an increase in authorized common shares on August 12, the same day both companies cleared the transaction, and that increase was written into the charter at closing. Existing share certificates remain valid and require no exchange.

Leadership favors the AvalonBay side

The executive roster confirms the leadership split disclosed earlier this summer, with AvalonBay supplying the chief executive, the finance chief and both investment-facing roles:

• Benjamin Schall, AvalonBay’s chief executive, holds the same title at Vivmark;
• Kevin O’Shea moves across as chief financial officer;
• Matthew Birenbaum, previously AvalonBay’s chief investment officer, becomes chief development officer;
• Sean Breslin, previously AvalonBay’s chief operating officer, becomes chief investment and growth officer.

Legacy Equity Residential retains meaningful operational representation. Michael Manelis continues as chief operating officer and Scott Fenster as general counsel, alongside Pamela Thomas in portfolio and asset management, Alaine Walsh in human capital, and Edward Schulman in legal affairs.

Mark Parrell, Equity Residential’s chief executive, departed at closing, resigning from the board and vacating his officer role. He collects severance under his change in control agreement, as do Catherine Carraway, Robert Garechana and Bret McLeod. Sean Willson, AvalonBay’s controller, takes over as chief accounting officer with a one-time restricted share award valued at $261,363 at grant, split evenly between three-year service vesting and three-year operational performance conditions. Ian Kaufman, the outgoing accounting chief, stays on temporarily to hand off responsibilities.

An evenly divided board

Governance was balanced more carefully than the executive suite. The board expanded to fourteen trustees drawn seven from each predecessor, and Stephen Sterrett, a continuing Equity Residential trustee, chairs it as a non-executive. Tahsinul Zia Huque, Parrell and Mark Shapiro resigned to make room, with the filing noting no disagreement with management prompted the departures.

Committee leadership likewise spans both sides. Terry Brown, a former AvalonBay director, chairs the investment committee, while audit falls to Charles Mueller, compensation to Mary Kay Haben, and corporate governance to Nina Jones.

Trustees will earn a $100,000 annual cash retainer plus committee fees, with the non-executive chairman drawing $250,000. Annual equity grants carry a $210,000 target value, and each sitting trustee received an initial prorated award worth $166,849 that vests on the first anniversary of closing.

What comes next

Closing settles the questions the deal left open through the summer, from the corporate identity to the composition of the leadership team. The naming rationale and the pro forma scale the companies advertised were disclosed at the end of July, and the terms shareholders ultimately voted on were fixed in definitive proxy materials in mid-July.

Attention now turns to integration and to the pro forma financial statements filed alongside the closing report, which give the first consolidated picture of a portfolio assembled from two of the largest coastal apartment platforms in the country.