REGIONAL MARKETS: NATIONWIDE

Regional News

APARTMENT FINANCE TODAY • FEBRUARY 2008

MIDWEST

Condos Selling in Printers Row

CHICAGO—Printers Corners, a high-rise condominium development, was recently completed here by developer Winthrop Properties. The development is located in the Printers Row neighborhood in the South Loop.

Units in the 16-story building were about 75 percent sold at press time. Because the building features a faceted design, every condo has corner windows. The building consists of only eight homes per floor.

Printers Corner features one-, two-, and three-bedroom floor plans. Unit sizes range from 743 square feet to 2,290 square feet. Base prices are from the $270,000s to the $800,000s.

Features include granite kitchen countertops, stainless steel appliances, a washer and a dryer, and a plasma television.

Green Park Provides Student Housing Financing

Lincoln, Neb.—Green Park Financial has provided a $5.18 million acquisition loan for Prime Property Investors to buy Claremont Apartments located here.

The complex is an 89-unit student housing property built in 1992. The development was fully leased at the closing of the sale.

The loan was structured with a nine-year term, five years of interest-only payments, and a 30-year amortization.

The loan was underwritten to an 80 percent loan-to-value with a 1.20x debt-service coverage ratio.

NORTHEAST

Complex Sells in Philly Suburb

Blackwood, N.J.—A venture led by locally based Empire Realty Investments has bought a 980-unit complex in this Philadelphia suburb for $51 million. The seller was Fountainview Village, L.P.

Autumn Ridge Apartments was built in the early 1980s and is situated on 52 acres. It includes a fitness center, a swimming pool, and two tennis courts.

Empire Realty owns and manages some 3,500 multifamily units across 15 states. Many of the properties are located in the greater Philadelphia area.

The firm also owns about 4 million square feet of commercial space and 1,000 development acres.

High-Rise Planned in D.C. Metro

Silver Springs, Md.—Construction is under way on a luxury high-rise apartment building in this Washington, D.C., suburb. Cameron House is being developed under a partnership between two firms and a fund: Behringer Harvard, a Dallas-based real estate company; Fairfield Residential, based in Grand Prairie, Texas, and San Diego, Calif.; and the Brookfield Real Estate Opportunity Fund, based in Toronto, Canada.

The 15-story, 325-unit building will include one- and two-bedroom apartments with an average size of 930 square feet. Amenities will include a rooftop swimming pool, a fitness center, and a business center. The development also will include 434 underground parking spaces, as well as about 7,500 square feet of retail space. The high-rise is expected to be completed in 2010.

SOUTH CENTRAL

Renovated Complex Sells in Arlington

Arlington, Texas—Phoenix-based Hendricks & Partners has announced the sale of Park Row East, a 205-unit apartment community here, for an undisclosed amount.

Park Row East was sold by State Road Arlington, L.P., of Bakersfield, Calif. The buyer was an entity titled 3201 E. Park Row, L.P., based in Austin, Texas.

The apartment complex has an almost entirely brick exterior and features units averaging about 1,000 square feet with renovated interiors.

Renters Staying Put in Dallas-Fort Worth

Apartment occupancy is on the rise in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, at levels not witnessed since 2000 thanks to the housing slump.

Occupancy is at 94.1 percent, after rising 1.3 percent in 2007, according to figures from M/PF YieldStar, a multi-family research firm based in Carrollton, Texas. Now that apartment complexes are filling up again, landlords can raise rents.

About 36 percent of apartments in the Fort Worth area offer rent discounts. That is down from a peak of 55 percent in 2006.

In a climate that’s making it more difficult for borrowers to buy homes, would-be homeowners are staying in their apartment homes.

Additionally, renters are moving out of homes when their landlords are foreclosed upon, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.

A decreasing apartment supply is also having an effect on occupancy rates, with 487 units added to the market, the least since 243 units were added in 1990. Fewer rentals have been added to the market because North Texas had a glut of units and high vacancy rates.

SOUTHEAST

Mission Acquires More Charlotte Units

Matthews, N.C.—Mission Residential has acquired its sixth apartment property in Charlotte’s metropolitan area.

The seller of the 392-unit complex was a subsidiary of Chicago-based commercial real estate firm Transwestern.

At the time of the sale, the property was known as Woodway Point. Mission planned to change the name of the community to Mission Matthews Place, as all of Mission’s properties carry the Mission name.

Atlanta REIT Sells Complexes, Adds One to JV

Atlanta—Post Properties, Inc., a multifamily real estate investment trust, has sold two apartment developments here as part of a Sec. 1031 exchange. The terms and the buyer were not disclosed.

The two properties are Post Ashford and Post Vinings, both garden-style communities with a total of 625 units, which were completed in 1991.

In a separate deal, Post added a 396-unit complex in Atlanta to its existing joint venture with Crow Holdings Realty Partners IV, a subsidiary of Crow Holdings of Dallas. Post holds a 25 percent interest in the joint venture.

WEST

Two Condos Sell in Las Vegas Suburb

Henderson, Nev.—Crossing at Green Valley and Martinique Bay, two condo developments here, have sold to an undisclosed buyer for a combined $75.4 million. The seller of Crossing at Green Valley was the Crossing Apartments Las Vegas, LLC. The seller of Martinique Bay was the Martinique Bay Apartments Las Vegas, LLC.

Both properties are located about 10 minutes from the Las Vegas Strip. They had 24 bids before the $75.4 million sale. The complexes were built in the 1980s. The buyer plans to make some upgrades to the developments.

Baron Plans Rehab for Phoenix Acquisition

Phoenix—Alegria Apartments, a 380-unit apartment complex, has sold here for $34 million. The seller was Hamilton Zanze & Co., based in San Francisco. The buyer was Baron Properties, based in Greenwood Village, Colo.

“Alegria represented an excellent value-added opportunity in a desirable core infill location which has seen very limited new apartment construction since 2000,” said Cindy Cooke of Colliers International.

Baron plans about $2.7 million in renovations to the 13- acre property, which was built in 1986.

The property is made up of 16 garden-style two-story buildings with studio, one-, and two-bedroom units ranging from 528 square feet to 962 square feet in size.

Occupancy was 92 percent at the time of the sale.

Aimco, JPMorgan Form JV

Los Angeles—Apartment Investment and Management Co. (Aimco) has formed a $726 million joint venture with a fund managed by JPMorgan Asset Management, Inc. The venture involves three apartment communities here.

The three complexes are the Palazzo at Park La Brea, the Palazzo East at Park La Brea, and the Villas at Park La Brea.

The properties are valued at $726 million or $525,000 per unit. Debt on the properties totals $296 million, leaving $430 million in equity.

JPMorgan paid Aimco $202 million for a 47 percent interest in the venture. Aimco will own 53 percent and will manage the properties.

Aimco is the nation’s largest owner and operator of multifamily properties, with more than 206,000 units located in 47 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.