Middleburg Communities, a leading developer of rental housing throughout the Southeast and Sunbelt, announced the appointments of three new development partners, Ross Magette, Tim McEachern, and J. Spencer Merritt, to increase its development capacity.
Each dedicated and highly-experienced partner is empowered to leverage the firm’s broad capabilities to oversee the firm’s development activity in each market where it operates. Middleburg expects to benefit from a streamlined decision-making process and improved relationships with key stakeholders that will enable the firm to identify development opportunities more quickly and speed up the time a project goes from conceptualization to delivery.
“We remain very bullish on both our core markets throughout the Southeast, and the continued strength in rental housing fundamentals,” stated Chris Finlay, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Middleburg. “We are taking this opportunity to enhance our development team by adding tremendous professionals with demonstrated track records of performance. We intend to leverage this local ‘boots on the ground’ approach to significantly increase our development pipeline and enhance our overall performance.”
Middleburg currently targets eight MSAs throughout the Southeast and is actively seeking to expand its development efforts in these markets given the strong and increasing demand for rental housing that the Company specializes in as a result of continued job opportunities and net migration to the area.
Middleburg’s newly-added development partners and the markets they oversee are as follows:
- Ross Magette – Richmond. Magette joined Middleburg in September 2024 after more than seven years at FCP, where he rose from Associate to Senior Vice President of Development. Magette has more than 13 years of development and construction experience, including at AvalonBay and Donohoe Construction Company. Magette, who is a Richmond native and has been working on investments in the area since 2021, obtained a B.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Virginia and an MBA from Vanderbilt University.
- Tim McEachern – Tampa. McEachern, who previously served as Managing Director of Development for LIV Development where he developed eleven luxury, class-A multifamily communities throughout Florida comprising 3,100 units, joined Middleburg in August 2024. He brings 25 years’ experience in developing, constructing, and financing commercial and multifamily projects. McEachern, who also spent time at Regions Bank, has been operating out of the Tampa area since 2015 and holds both an undergraduate degree in Architecture and MBA from the University of Florida.
- J. Spencer Merritt – Raleigh. Merritt’s multifamily development experience dates back to 2006. He joined Middleburg in September 2024 after spending four years at East West Partners, where he served as Partner. He has been based in Raleigh since 2016 and worked at North Pine Management, FD Stonewater, Johnson Development Associates and Hitt Contracting. Merritt holds a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill and an MBA from its Kenan-Flagler Business School.
Finlay added, “As one of the most active developers and builders of rental housing over the last year or more, we have seen how our diverse and complete capabilities allow us to perform when many other firms are slowing down. We will continue to scale our business by adding these excellent development partners, and also look to add geography over the medium term.”
Middleburg currently has 14 projects under construction totaling more than 4,000 units, and an additional 11 projects under development with near-term construction starts. The firm’s most recent project closing is a co-sponsored development project with KDM Development called West CLT, a 280-unit Class A multifamily community in the expanding west Charlotte airport corridor.
