SEATTLE-Security Properties Inc. has turned four recently-purchased apartments over to a fund, and intends to buy up to six more properties for the fund in the next three years. The company plans a total portfolio of 1,500-2,000 units for the Security Properties Multifamily Fund, Ed McGovern, managing director of capital markets for the company, tells GlobeSt.com.

Most of the purchases are going to be made in joint ventures, McGovern says. Three of the recent properties, the Beaverton portfolio, were bought in a venture with the Praedium Group for $34.3 million. Security Properties bought the fourth site, the 78-unit former Chelsea Heights condo in Tacoma, WA.

McGovern says that his firm had hoped to create a $50 million fund to buy apartment complexes themselves, but then realized it had enough partners built up to leverage a smaller investment for the same amount of capital. “We can get the same level of diversification with a smaller pool of money,” he says. “We do need to be cautious how we deploy capital, seeing today’s current economic conditions.”