Elme Communities (ELME)

Elme Communities, formerly Washington Real Estate Investment Trust, is a self-administered, Maryland-organized equity real estate investment trust and successor to a trust organized in 1960. Its business has primarily consisted of owning apartment communities in the greater Washington, DC metro and Sunbelt regions. The company is now winding down. On October 30, 2025, shareholders approved a Plan of Sale and Liquidation, which contemplates selling all assets, winding down the business and dissolving the company. It adopted the liquidation basis of accounting on November 1, 2025.

On November 12, 2025, Elme completed the sale of 19 multifamily properties for approximately $1.6 billion in cash. It also took a $520.0 million senior secured term loan from Goldman Sachs Bank USA, secured by the ten remaining properties: Riverside Apartments, Elme Bethesda, Elme Germantown, Elme Watkins Mill, 3801 Connecticut Avenue, Kenmore Apartments, Elme Conyers, Elme Marietta, Elme Sandy Springs and Watergate 600, the last being its sole office property. A special liquidating distribution of $14.67 per share was paid on January 7, 2026. After year-end, Elme sold Elme Sandy Springs and Elme Marietta, about 800 apartment homes, for roughly $112.75 million and partly repaid the term loan. It has contracts to sell Watkins Mill, Conyers and Watergate 600 for about $128.78 million, and it is marketing the other remaining properties. It targets completing all sales by mid-year 2026.

As of December 31, 2025, Elme owned about 3,570 apartment homes in the Washington, DC and Atlanta metro regions and about 300,000 square feet of commercial space in the Washington, DC metro region. By February 27, 2026, it owned about 2,500 apartment homes and the commercial space in the DC metro region, plus about 200 apartment homes in the Atlanta metro region. Its customers are residential renters and commercial tenants. The company does not intend to conduct a trade or business except as needed for an orderly liquidation, and it plans to distribute net proceeds to shareholders after reserves for expenses and liabilities.

All residential communities are managed by Elme, while Stream Realty Partners provides property management and leasing at Watergate 600. As of February 27, 2026, Elme had 91 employees, 55 in community management and 36 in corporate, financial, asset management and other roles. Nearly all work in or near the Washington, DC area, and six work at the Atlanta community. It expects further downsizing as the wind-down proceeds. It expects to stay qualified as a REIT until its final REIT tax year, and it tracks energy, emissions and water use at its properties. Its operations are subject to the ADA, the Fair Housing Act and environmental regulations.