Disciplined Growth Fuels Middleburg’s National Expansion

By Christine Serlin
Multifamily Executive
May 11, 2026

Middleburg, a vertically integrated developer based in Vienna, Virginia, is seeing continued momentum as it scales and expands into high-growth markets across the nation.

For over the past two decades, CEO Chris Finlay says Middleburg has set the foundation and now is continuing to build on that strength to scale to the West and deepen its presence in the markets where it already operates.

“The name of the game right now is staying disciplined—staying disciplined to site control and staying disciplined to making sure we’re executing the way we want to,” he says. “It’s about continuing to build on the system and evolving for continued strength and scalability.

Since the developer’s launch in 2004, Middleburg has delivered over 32,000 homes in nine states, primarily in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic. Last year, it started 4,150 multifamily units, a 62% year-over-year increase, earning it the No. 11 ranking on the National Multifamily Housing Council’s top developers list and No. 13 on its top builders list.

This year, Middleburg, which has 52 projects under control and in the development process for over 18,000 new units across its target markets, plans for 18 to 20 starts.

In a challenging development environment—with cost fluctuations, uncertain economic conditions, and delayed timelines—Finlay says Middleburg’s business has been designed to mitigate some of that uncertainty.

Key to that, he says, is being fully integrated from research, land acquisitions, and investment management to capital markets, development, construction, and property management.

“A big part of our business is how we leverage all those different components and integrate within a single system to eliminate some of the variability and to be able to continue to deliver at-scale rental housing,” Finlay says.

Another big factor for Middleburg’s growth trajectory is having the right team.

Middleburg is starting to expand geographically as well as get deeper into the individual markets where it operates, and it has made recent hires to support those goals.

In the fourth quarter of 2025, it tapped Scott Zimmerly as regional development partner to lead its Southeast expansion strategy and its development team. A few months later, it hired Scott Makee as regional development partner of the West to oversee a market entry strategy, regional team buildout, and full-cycle development execution as part of its geographic expansion. Dallas and Phoenix will be the initial focus, with other near-term opportunities in select locations in Denver, Houston, and Las Vegas.

Last month, Middleburg appointed Lindsay Lechner as managing director and head of capital markets, with Finlay calling her a “rock star from the equity capital markets perspective.”

“It’s not just about having somebody who can come in and raise capital on a deal here or there. We’ve gone from six or seven starts a year to expecting do to 18 to 20 starts this year. We are growing pretty rapidly,” he says. “It’s about continuing to build the system with which we raise capital. How do you integrate the development partners with the capital markets team and how do you centralize aspects of that for efficiency? Lindsay is pulling those pieces together.”

With widespread discussion about multifamily oversupply today following the post-COVID inventory boom of the past couple of years, especially in Sun Belt markets, Finlay says that’s not a constraint for Middleburg.

“We’ve seen consistent, strong demand for rental housing across all our markets,” he says.

He notes that he’s seeing an increasing percentage of rental housing that is obsolete, inefficient, and inadequate as well as the homeownership rate fundamentally shifting, benefiting the multifamily sector.

“We are fundamentally undersupplied in general from a long-term perspective,” he says.

Finlay shares for Middleburg it’s about delivering the right product in the right location that is going to leverage the right kind of longer-term growth.

“Great companies are successful in all market conditions,” he says. “And I think that is extraordinarily true for rental housing operators and developers.”

Finlay adds that Middleburg’s strategy will continue to be focusing on high-growth markets across the Sun Belt and to deliver rental housing that’s responsive to the needs and the wants of its consumer.

“When we think about our product, what we’re trying to do is capture the bulk of the demand bell curve,” he says. “The needs are things like affordability, access, and proximity to employment. The wants are things like amenities and finishes and the type of unit. Our strategy is really centered around this idea of delivering both of those things to the consumer and doing it to the broadest swath of the bell curve as we can.”