Throughout 2024, during our work with the Wimbledon Tenants Union, we conducted in-depth research to understand exactly who was profiting from the dangerous conditions and rising rents at Wimbledon Square & Gardens — and why it was so hard to hold anyone accountable.

What we uncovered was a tangled web of corporate entities, shell companies, and billion-dollar real estate investors shielding themselves from responsibility while exploiting tenants across the West Coast.

This blog is a window into the corporate empire behind Prime Residential — and why organizing against landlords like this matters for all of us.

Who is Prime Residential?

Prime Residential is one of the largest private landlords on the West Coast, controlling over 18,000 apartments and townhomes in Oregon, Washington, California, and Nevada.
But behind the Prime Residential brand is Prime Group, a real estate private equity firm founded by John C. Atwater, a multimillionaire investor who built his fortune on property speculation, tenant exploitation, and corporate deregulation.

Prime Residential Leadership Includes:

• Co-CEOs: John C. Atwater and Dan James
• President: Will Madison
• Senior VP of Property Management: Bert Ortiz
• Regional Manager: Venesia Monk (Portland area)

At every level, decisions about your home — rent hikes, maintenance neglect, harassment of voucher tenants — are shaped by a handful of executives who never have to face the consequences.

The Corporate Shell Game: How They Hide Ownership and Dodge Accountability

Prime Residential doesn’t simply own apartments like traditional landlords. Instead, they hide ownership behind a web of LLCs (Limited Liability Companies) and Special Purpose Entities (SPEs).

For Wimbledon Square & Gardens, ownership runs through:

• Prime Wimbledon SPE LLC → Prime Wimbledon Investments LLC → Prime Spectrum Investments LLC, all tied back to Prime Group and Atwater.

This structure is designed to:

• Isolate liability: So if tenants sue, they hit a shell company, not the real owners.
• Dodge taxes: Fragmenting assets to maximize deductions and minimize exposure.
• Confuse tenants: Making it difficult to organize, litigate, or even find out who’s truly responsible.

Atwater has created a real estate machine that profits while remaining almost invisible to the people whose lives he impacts.

Who is John C. Atwater — Really?

John Atwater likes to style himself as a philanthropist, serving on the boards of Brown University and the California Academy of Sciences.
But the reality is darker: his wealth comes directly from exploiting tenants across the West Coast.

🔎 Facts About Atwater:

• Founder and Co-CEO of Prime Residential and Prime Group
• Managing Partner of Prime Spectrum Investments
• Built an empire by cutting costs, raising rents, and maximizing profit — not by creating safe, stable housing
• Prime’s companies have been sued repeatedly for housing violations, negligence, and fraud
• Tightly controls an opaque network of companies to shield himself from lawsuits and financial accountability

Atwater isn’t just a landlord. He’s a corporate slumlord architect.
And Wimbledon Square & Gardens — like Sunset Summit, Sterling Pointe, The Frank Estate, and dozens of other properties — are just pieces in his investment portfolio.

Mapping Prime’s Oregon Empire

Beyond Wimbledon Square, Prime Residential’s web reaches deep into Oregon’s housing market:

Every LLC links back to Atwater’s corporate empire.

The Pattern: Exploitation, Automation, and Neglect

Across their portfolio, Prime’s model is simple:

• Raise rents aggressively using automated AI systems and chatbots — minimizing human staffing costs.
• Slash maintenance budgets — allowing black mold, pests, broken elevators, and unsafe conditions to fester.
• Target low-income tenants and voucher holders for harassment or displacement.
• Use retaliatory evictions, illegal late fees, and intimidation to suppress tenant organizing.
• Avoid responsibility through an endless maze of LLCs and offshore-like protections.

They do this while marketing themselves as “luxury living” and boasting to investors about “maximizing revenue streams.”

This isn’t negligence.
It’s a business model.

What Can We Do About It?

By naming the real players — by exposing John Atwater and the true nature of Prime Residential — we take the first step toward reclaiming our homes and our dignity.

At Wimbledon Tenants Union and across PDX Unions, we are building a movement to:

• Organize across properties owned by Prime entities.
• Demand stronger tenant protections and corporate transparency laws.
• Pressure local and state officials to hold slumlords like Atwater accountable.
• Support tenants fighting back, property by property, city by city.

Housing is a human right. Corporate landlords will not steal that from us without a fight.

Connect. Organize. Fight Back.
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