GlobeSt.com EXCLUSIVE: Southeast Apartment Partners on a Roll

ATLANTA-Southeast Apartment Partners’ brokerage team of Marc Robinson, Joshua Goldfarb and Chris Johnson doesn’t read the headlines; the brokers just keep on selling.

The trio sold $17 million worth of multifamily assets in three deals in last 45 days. If they had read the headlines, they would have known the city’s multifamily market is supposed to be in the doldrums with a vacancy level of 10.3% expected to rise to 11.5% by year end, according to a mid-year analysis by Marcus & Millichap.

“These sales demonstrate that the private capital investment market continues to thrive, driven primarily by low interest rates and entrepreneurial investors,” Goldfarb tells GlobeSt.com.

The vacancy marks at the three sold properties are in the mid-80% range, a moderate level for new owners who plan to renovate and improve the properties’ values, Robinson tells GlobeSt.com.

For example, in suburban Roswell, north of Downtown, locally based JAMCO Properties Inc. paid MFA Inc., a New York-based mortgage REIT, $10.9 million, or $36,333 per unit, for the 300-unit, 80%-leased Harmony Bay Apartments.

The 31-year-old, 396,870-sf property sits on 25 acres near the major thoroughfares of State Road GA 400 and Holcombe Bridge Road in North Fulton County. The buyer assumed existing 7.78% financing.

Harmony Bay has 168 two-bedroom, two-bath units; 60 one bedroom, one-bath units; 36 three bedroom, two-bath units; and 36 three bedroom, two-bath townhouse units.

“The new owner will attempt to raise the occupancy and reposition the property through local hands-on management, as well as a strategic capital repair program designed to address the properties’ significant deferred maintenance,” Robinson, Southeast Apartment Partners’ managing director, tells GlobeSt.com.

In the affluent Sandy Springs/North Buckhead community of North Atlanta, locally based Sabra Management, a private firm, paid St. Louis, MO-based Gardner Cos. $4.1 million, or about $42,100 per unit, for the 98-unit, 87% leased Lake Placid Apartments.

The 33-year-old property is just inside the Interstate 285 Perimeter at Roswell Road, “a very heavy traffic exchange,”Johnston tells GlobeSt.com. “The buyer, a local hands-on owner, intends to raise the occupancy through hands-on management.”

The property comprises 57 one-bedroom, one-bath units renting for $665 per month; 35 two-bedroom, 1 ½-bath units for $850; and six three bedroom, two-bath units for $950.

The Sandy Springs/North Buckhead submarket was also the location of the brokerage team’s third sale. Locally based Lin Properties paid Prado Place LLC $3 million, or $36,144 per unit, for the 83-unit, 85%-leased asset. Longtime local investor David Baker heads Prado Place LLC, a private partnership. The 33-year-old structure, like the Lake Placid Apartments, is at I-285 Perimeter at the junction of Roswell Road.

“The new owner feels that the property is very well-located and hopes to achieve economies of scale by adding Sierra Place to his other recent purchase of Park Village Apartment on Roswell Road,” Robinson tells GlobeSt.com.

The complex includes 48 one-bedroom, one-bath units renting for $660 to $680 per month; 24 two bedroom-two bath units for $890 to $950 per month; five two-bedroom, one-bath units for $840; and four three bedroom-two-bath units for $1,030.