Spotlight: MJW Investments and Its Student Housing Investment Platform

The Los Angeles owner of apartments and near-campus housing, in business since 1983, is raising a $75 million student housing fund through the RIA and family office channel.

September 25, 2026

MJW Investments is a Los Angeles real estate firm that owns and operates multifamily apartments and student housing near large public universities. Mark J. Weinstein, its founder and president, started the firm in 1983 by buying a single five-unit property. As of July 2026, MJW reports owning and operating more than $1.5 billion in real estate, with over 1,500 multifamily units and 6,800 student housing beds across eight states.

MJW has bought student housing since 2007 and is now opening that strategy to outside investors through the MJW Investments Student Housing Fund. The fund targets $75 million and can expand to $100 million. It plans to acquire, reposition and operate communities near major public research universities in the Power 4 and Group of 5 athletic conferences, choosing schools where enrollment is growing and new housing supply is limited. Securities are offered through American Alternative Capital, LLC. Silver Portal Capital serves as MJW’s investment banker on the fund and works with RIAs, family offices and other investment professionals during due diligence.

Published acquisition criteria

MJW publishes separate buy boxes for its two property types. On the multifamily side, it looks for core-plus and value-add Class A and B properties, preferably built in the 1990s or later. It requires at least 30 units in Los Angeles and 50 in other markets, and it prefers 100 or more for operating efficiency. Its target markets are Salt Lake City, Provo and Ogden; Boise; Seattle; Phoenix; Denver, Fort Collins and Colorado Springs; Austin; Nashville; and, in California, Los Angeles, the Inland Empire, San Diego and the Bay Area.

The student housing criteria are narrower. A property needs at least 150 beds, a university of at least 20,000 students, and a walkable location that does not depend on shuttles, and MJW prefers deals with a value-add component. MJW tells brokers it can close all cash on a short due diligence timeline and will protect broker fees.

A shift toward newer multifamily

The preference for 1990s and newer buildings follows a change in direction that Weinstein described to the Los Angeles Business Journal in January 2024. MJW had long specialized in older value-add apartments and student housing. Over the prior few years it had moved toward newer properties it considered under-managed. It planned to spend roughly $200 million a year on acquisitions and to tilt that spending toward conventional multifamily.

MJW’s recent purchases follow that pattern. In January 2025 it acquired Coventry Square Apartments, a 92-unit community in Upland, California, off-market. In October 2025 it acquired Renaissance Place, a 40-unit mixed-use property in Bountiful, Utah, also off-market. In July 2026 it bought The 951, a 70-unit mixed-use community in downtown Boise built in 2015, directly from the original developer through a longtime broker relationship. The plan for The 951 has three parts: light interior renovations as units turn over, raising below-market rents to market, and possibly converting underused ground-floor retail to apartments. Roundhouse, MJW’s Boise operating partner, manages the property alongside its other downtown holdings.

Co-GP partnerships

MJW also invests as a co-general partner with local operators. In 2021 it partnered with MHE Enterprises and Redstone Capital Partners to buy a 194-unit, 1,156-bed student housing community near Brigham Young University. The deal was MJW’s fifth acquisition in the Provo submarket, and Redstone Residential took on operations and renovations. That same year, Weinstein told the Los Angeles Business Journal that in these arrangements MJW may put up as much as 90% of the initial capital while splitting the partnership 50/50 with the operator who found the deal. Provo is still MJW’s largest student housing concentration. Four of the recent student housing transactions MJW lists are in Provo, including Raintree, a 924-bed community acquired in 2021.