What Happened to Behringer Harvard REITs? TIER REIT and Others

The roll call: what each Behringer Harvard program became

Search EDGAR for “Behringer” and you get dozens of names. Most are property-level entities and tenant-in-common vehicles. Six registrants sold interests to the public through brokers and filed annual reports under their own names. A seventh, Behringer Harvard Multifamily REIT II (later Adaptive Real Estate Income Trust), filed registration statements from 2007 and withdrew the last one on June 11, 2013 without a 10-K on EDGAR; we found no sale of shares.

The sponsor itself changed its name. The Opportunity REIT advisory agreements describe “Stratera Holdings, LLC (f/k/a Behringer Harvard Holdings, LLC)”, which is the company that gave up both Opportunity advisers in 2017.

TIER REIT (Behringer Harvard REIT I): from $10.00 to Cousins stock

REIT I was the flagship. It owned 73 properties at the end of 2009 and sold its shares through three $10.00 offerings. The filings show a long slide in what the board thought a share was worth and in what it paid.

The first value in our sources is $4.25, set on May 17, 2010, for shares sold at $10.00 as late as 2008; the 10-K for 2010 shows goodwill of about $11.5 million written off in the second quarter of 2010 in connection with it. The 10-K for 2009 had only said the board expected the coming value to be under $9.50. We found no filed value for 2005-2009, so the table shows none.

The rate cuts. For the first three months of 2009 the declared rate equalled 6.5% on a $10.00 share, $0.0017808 a day. From April 2009 it was $0.0271 a month, 3.25%. From May 2010 to November 2012 it was $0.0083 a month, 1.0%. On December 19, 2012 the board approved the suspension of monthly distributions. No distribution was declared in 2013.

The exit. On June 2, 2015 TIER filed articles of amendment for a one-for-six reverse stock split and on July 23, 2015 listed on the NYSE under “TIER”. Distributions restarted at $0.18 a quarter per post-split share (about $0.03 per original share; our arithmetic) and were authorized every quarter through the first quarter of 2019. Cousins Properties agreed to buy it in March 2019. The merger proxy states that the exchange ratio was fixed at 2.98 and, at the Cousins close of $9.88 on March 22, 2019, “represented approximately $29.44” for each TIER share; at $9.29 on May 7, 2019 it was $27.68. The merger closed on June 14, 2019, about 166 million Cousins shares and about $1.6 billion in total. After the merger Cousins combined every four shares into one, which makes the ratio 0.745 post-split Cousins shares per TIER share.

What $10,000 became (our arithmetic). A holder who put $10,000 in at $10.00 before the end of 2008 owned 1,000 shares, which are 124.17 Cousins shares. Distributions declared on those 1,000 shares from January 1, 2009 through the first quarter of 2019 were about $1,247: $767 in 2009-2012 (0.40 + 0.175 + 0.100 + 0.092 per share) and $480 from 16 quarters of $0.18 on 166.67 TIER shares. Distributions declared in 2005-2008 (the table above) are not in this sum. Cousins declared $0.32 a share for the quarter ended September 30, 2026, which on 124.17 shares is $39.73 a quarter. We do not quote a Cousins price here; check a current quote and your cost basis.

Behringer Harvard Opportunity REIT I: liquidation at $1.90

Opportunity REIT I offered 53,270,000 shares at $10 in its primary offering and a distribution reinvestment plan at $9.50, ending the primary component on December 28, 2007 with $538.7 million of gross proceeds. Distributions were modest: $0.18, $0.29, $0.30, $0.23 and $0.10 a share for 2006 through 2010. The record of its value:

On February 10, 2017 the REIT ended its Behringer adviser and property manager agreements and hired Lightstone affiliates. Stockholders approved a plan of complete liquidation and dissolution on January 30, 2017; the company said it expected to finish within two years. It filed its articles of dissolution on February 8, 2018, and the Form 15 on December 12, 2018. The final $1.90 was “within the range” of the 2016 valuation, per the board. For $10,000 at $10.00: $1,900 in 2018 plus $1,100 declared in 2006-2010 equals $3,000 (our arithmetic), before any tax effect.

Behringer Harvard Opportunity REIT II: now Lightstone Value Plus REIT V

Opportunity REIT II ended its primary offering on March 15, 2012 and raised $265.3 million (about 26.7 million shares). Its filed values were $9.50 (December 31, 2012), $10.09 (August 1, 2013), $9.72 (October 31, 2014) and $9.19 (October 31, 2015). A special distribution of $1.50 a share ($38.4 million), paid on January 5, 2016, cut the value to $7.69 at December 31, 2015; the next value was $7.80 on October 31, 2016. Ordinary redemptions were suspended from April 1, 2012 to May 15, 2014. On February 10, 2017 the Behringer adviser was replaced by Lightstone, and the company took the Lightstone name later that year.

Everything after that, the eight apartment communities, the $16.56 board NAV and the tender offer, is in our Lightstone Value Plus REIT V review, and the failed 2026 annual meeting is in the Lightstone REIT V quorum article. We do not repeat them. If you hold this one, you still own a share of a non-traded REIT.

Behringer Harvard Multifamily REIT I: listed in 2014, sold for $12.00 in 2017

Multifamily REIT I sold 146.4 million shares at $10.00 for $1.46 billion; its primary offering ended on September 2, 2011. The board set a value of $10.03 on March 1, 2013, the last one before the listing. Distributions declared per share fell from $0.69 in 2009 to $0.67, $0.60, $0.41 and $0.35 (2010-2013), then $0.34 (2014) and $0.30 (2015 and 2016). The DRIP was suspended in August 2014 and, on November 4, 2014, the board ended it and the share redemption program in connection with the listing.

The shares began trading on the NYSE on November 21, 2014 as Monogram Residential Trust, ticker “MORE”. The company announced a tender offer the same day for up to $100,000,000 of its shares at a price between $8.50 and $9.25. On July 4, 2017 it agreed to be acquired by GS Monarch Parent, LLC, formed by an investor group led by Greystar Real Estate Partners; each share was converted into $12.00 in cash, without interest, when the merger took effect on September 19, 2017. The proxy puts that at a premium of about 22.4% to the $9.80 close of July 3, 2017.

What $10,000 became (our arithmetic). 1,000 shares bought at $10.00 returned $12,000 in cash. Distributions declared per share since 2009 total $3.66 through 2016 ($3,660 on 1,000 shares) plus $0.075 for the quarter ended June 30, 2017, for a maximum of about $15,735 before tax. Buyers in the 2008-2011 offering who joined after 2009 received fewer distributions; the first quarter of 2017 is not in this sum.

The two partnerships: Short-Term and Mid-Term Opportunity Funds

These were limited partnerships, not REITs, with units of $10.00 sold from February 19, 2003 to February 19, 2005. Their general partners were Behringer Harvard affiliates.

Regular distributions were also paid before the liquidations; we did not total them. In both cases the limited partnership units were exchanged for pro rata units of a Delaware statutory liquidating trust, which filed 10-Ks until it distributed its last cash.

How an heir or executor finds the shares

• Pre-2015 REIT I, Opportunity REIT I, Multifamily REIT I and the partnerships: the original securities no longer exist. If a statement or certificate shows one, the cash or the Cousins shares were due after the exit. The merger proxies named the agent that handled the exchange: American Stock Transfer & Trust Company, LLC, “the exchange agent for Cousins”, for TIER shares held in certificate form. For Monogram, the merger proxy says a paying agent sends the letter of transmittal. Opportunity REIT I told holders that on February 8, 2018 its transfer books would close and stop recording transfers “except by will, intestate succession or by operation of law”, which is the route an heir's re-registration would have had to take before the final payment.
• Unclaimed money: shares or cheques that were never claimed are often turned over to a state unclaimed-property office. Search the state where the holder lived at the time of the exit, under the holder's name, at the state treasurer or controller site, not on a fee-charging search site.
• Cousins shares from the TIER merger: these are listed shares now, held in street name or at Cousins' transfer agent. Ask the broker for the cost basis carried over from the original shares.
• If the holder has died: read our guide to what happens to non-traded REIT shares when the owner dies and the inheritance tax table.

What a reader can do with this

1. Identify the vehicle by CIK or former name. The names in the roll call are the ones on old brokerage statements. “Behringer Harvard Opportunity REIT I” and “II” are two different companies with two different outcomes.
2. Check cost basis and the tax treatment. TIER's 10-K says that for tax purposes 100% of its 2011 and 2012 distributions were a return of capital, which lowers basis. A cash exit like Monogram's or Opportunity REIT I's final payment can produce a gain or a loss against that adjusted basis. The merger into Cousins was a share exchange; ask a tax preparer how it applied to your account.
3. Compare each exit to what you paid. On a $10.00 share, the numbers above are $3.00 at Opportunity REIT I, up to $15.74 at Monogram, and 0.12417 Cousins shares plus declared distributions at TIER (all our arithmetic, before tax).
4. If you still hold Lightstone Value Plus REIT V, read the review linked above first; your next decision is about redemptions and the tender offer, not about this history. Our sister history of another sponsor's REITs is in what happened to KBS REITs.

This is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal or tax advice.

FAQ

Sources, read on November 12, 2026: Behringer Harvard REIT I / TIER REIT (CIK 1176373) Forms 10-K for 2009 (0001104659-10-014852), 2010 (0001104659-11-013024), 2012 (0001176373-13-000003), 2013 (0001176373-14-000005), 2014 (0001176373-15-000007), 2015 (0001176373-16-000070) and 2018 (0001176373-19-000050), 8-Ks of January 10, 2011, December 28, 2011, December 20, 2012 and June 14, 2019 (0001104659-19-035696) and the merger proxy of May 8, 2019 (0001047469-19-002945); Cousins Properties (CIK 25232) 8-K of June 14, 2019 (0001104659-19-035688) and 10-Q for September 30, 2026 (0000025232-26-000079); Behringer Harvard Opportunity REIT I (CIK 1308711) Forms 10-K for 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2016, liquidation proxy of November 2, 2016 (0001047469-16-016440), 8-Ks of February 16 and March 20, 2017 and August 13, 2018 and Form 15 of December 12, 2018; Behringer Harvard Opportunity REIT II (CIK 1387061) Forms 10-K for 2012-2016 and 8-K of February 16, 2017; Behringer Harvard Multifamily REIT I / Monogram (CIK 1384710) Forms 10-K for 2013, 2014 and 2016, 8-Ks of November 21, 2014 and September 19, 2017 and merger proxy of August 10, 2017 (0001047469-17-005183); Short-Term and Mid-Term Opportunity Fund filings (CIKs 1179351, 1179352).