The Cogsville Group is the second winning bidder in the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s real estate-owned pilot initiative, HousingWire reported Oct. 2. The New York City-based private equity firm purchased 94 Fannie Mae properties in Chicago.

The FHFA announced the first winning bidder in September when Pacifica Companies purchased 699 Fannie Mae properties in Florida.

Cogsville Group’s purchase of 94 Chicago properties totals 111 units (68 of which are occupied) with a third-party valuation of $13.7 million. The transaction value to Fannie Mae is $11.8 million.

In 2010 and 2011, Cogsville was involved in $3 billion of transactions with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the firm continues to make significant acquisitions of distressed assets from the federal government. The firm’s portfolio is collateralized by 3,900 loans in 49 states.

“Our acquisition of these Chicago assets is a natural outgrowth of The Cogsville Group’s successful public-private investments in commercial real estate," Donald Cogsville, the firm’s chief executive, told HousingWire. “With the shifting fundamentals in the housing markets, single family residential is fast becoming an important asset class.”

Fannie Mae continues to offer for-sale pools of properties in markets across the nation that have a high demand for rental housing and a substantial supply of REO properties. The FHFA said interested investors can continue to prequalify for future real estate-owned transactions.