Boston Investor Unloads Four Gwinnett Apartments

A Boston investor has just sold its Atlanta multifamily holdings after fighting back from distress during the depths of the Great Recession. Boston-based Realty Financial Partners sold its portfolio of four Gwinnett County-area apartments to a collection of different owners for a grand total of $71.7M. MHA Brokers' Josh Goldfarb (here with Matt Wittekeind) and Tyler Averitt brokered the sale. Those deals include:

• The 416-unit Highland Reserve in Norcross, bought by King Rook Capital for $23.3M, or $56k/unit.
• The 300-unit Highland Valley (next door to Reserve and recently renamed Princeton Heights Apartments) to Emma Capital Properties for $18.75M, or $62,500/unit.
• The 252-unit Highland Corners in Peachtree Corners to Audubon Communities for $16.2M, or $64k/door.
• The 240-unit Highland Lakes to Marquis Investments for $13.4M, or $55,800/unit.

Tyler says RFP, which exits the Atlanta market with this sale, worked out its previous equity ownership of the property in 2010 with the lender, and then worked to stabilize the properties. "They were in there for five years, running it until the market got to the point where they could recoup their losses," Tyler tells us. Now fully leased, Tyler says there's still a big value-add play for the new owners, given they picked up the properties (including Highland Corners here) at well below the metro multifamily price per pound average ($120,500/unit, according to Marcus & Millichap), and will renovate the units to push up rents.