Last week, Shashikant Jogani won a payout of $1.8 billion.
He also scored a 50 percent stake in a 17,000-unit apartment portfolio, sprawled across Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley, after a jury divided up stakes in family holdings. The jury ordered one of Shashikant’s brothers to hand out slices to the other four brothers.
Jogani, 77, ended up with a slice valued at about $3 billion, according to attorneys on the case.
But the court decision only adds to his already sprawling portfolio across the country.
Shashikant and his son, Pratik Jogani, own at least 8,600 apartments across Southern California, Nevada, Oklahoma and Arizona, according to court documents, property records and reports.
Their earliest acquisitions outside of Los Angeles date back to 2002 — the first deed he signed was the $1.32 million purchase of a 56-unit complex in Tehachapi, about 100 miles north of Downtown L.A. The family still owns the property, records show.
The father-son duo also manage the properties — more than 80 across four states — through their company, L.A.-based Pro Residential Management.
Since 2002, limited liability companies controlled by Pratik have spent almost $500 million on properties, records show. Most are garden-style apartments with rents lower than surrounding complexes — many were built in the 1960s or 1970s and have not been updated since.
About 50 percent of their holdings are in Arizona, reaching from Phoenix down to Nogales on the border of Mexico. The Joganis have been steadily increasing their holdings in Arizona since 2014, making their largest purchase in the state in 2021 — a $64 million deal for a 300-unit property in Phoenix.
With a 50 percent stake in the 17,000 units divvied up by the court, plus at least 8,600 apartments across the country, Shashikant stands within striking distance of the National Multifamily Housing Council’s list of 50 largest landlords in the country; the 50th largest is Northland, which owned 26,599 units in 2023.
Familial sprawl
Shashikant Jogani, a Jain born in India, moved to the U.S. in 1969 to study chemical engineering at the University of Southern California. He then started a jewelry business in 1972, according to court records, following in the footsteps of his father, a diamond trader.
“Diamonds got us started, but California real estate is where the real money is,” Shashikant said in an interview with the Washington Post in 1990. “Most of the big millionaires in America made their money in real estate. I take my clue from that.”
In the 1980s, he bought 6,500 apartments across L.A., valued at $375 million at the time. He had $100 million in equity in the properties.
Then, thanks to a confluence of factors — the savings and loan crisis, a nationwide recession and the 1993 Northridge earthquake — Shashikant ended up in financial trouble. He needed money.
“Like other real property owners, plaintiff was forced to address actual and potential defaults and foreclosures,” Shashikant said in his complaint against his brother, Haresh Jogani.
In 1995, Shashikant and Haresh came to an oral agreement — Haresh and their three other brothers would enter into a joint venture with Shashikant to help support the properties.
A 20-year litigation hinged on the validity of that agreement. The question was decided by an L.A. Superior Court jury late last month, with the resulting payouts to the brothers, including Shashikant.
From 1995 through 2002, Shashikant and his brothers grew the portfolio to 15,900 units. As of 2002, the properties were valued at more than $1 billion, according to court records, with more than $550 million in equity.
And as the portfolio grew, Shashikant wanted his fair share of it. But he also wanted more, across the country.
Litigation squabbles
Shashikant and Pratik’s first significant foray outside of Los Angeles was Oklahoma City, buying at least 700 units in 2005 and 2006, according to property records.
But the move away from his home base brought new court battles.
In 2008, one of their properties in Oklahoma City was condemned by the city and deemed “unfit for human occupancy because of serious mold, electrical, structural and plumbing problems,” The Oklahoman reported at the time.
A year later, an Oklahoma court ordered Shashikant to pay $1 million to a bank, after finding that he had fraudulently signed for and kept insurance money for two fires at one of his complexes in Oklahoma City.
The same year, City National Bank sued Shashikant for allegedly failing to pay a $6.8 million court judgment stemming from unpaid debt, records show. The debt was tied to properties in Central California, Phoenix and Oklahoma. The suit was settled and then dismissed in 2017.
Despite the legal fights, Shashikant has only sold off a handful of properties; he and his son still own at least 10 they bought between 2002 and 2009.
And after each recession — in 1990 and the 2008 financial crisis — the pair quickly switched to acquisition mode.
The duo spent at least $170 million buying apartments between 2014 and 2019, property records show, adding about 3,800 units to their portfolio.
A handful were bought out of distress.
In 2015, Shashikant and Pratik bought a 468-unit complex in Phoenix called Resort on 27th. The seller was Starwood’s special servicing division, after a previous loan on the property fell into default. The duo spent $13.9 million — a 43 percent discount from what the previous buyers had paid for the property in 2007, records show.
And when multifamily investment ballooned to $213 billion in 2021, compared to $193 billion in 2019, according to CBRE, Shashikant and Pratik jumped on the trend. They bought at least 2,800 units between 2021 and 2022, records show, spending $232 million.
They were not as aggressive as some multifamily syndicators that ballooned their portfolio in 2021, using swaths of floating-rate debt. When interest rates rose, many multifamily firms found their portfolios in financial trouble.
Shashikant and Pratik have less than five loans securitized into collateralized loan obligations, according to Morningstar Credit, and none of them are floating rate.
After the legal verdict last month, Shashikant is set to come into $1.8 billion in fresh cash.
At a time when many multifamily properties are in distress — foreclosures and defaults — Shashikant could follow his previous strategy and put that money to use by buying into a downturn.
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