Virginia-based Blackfin Real Estate Investors acquired the 504-unit Pressley Ridge Apartments in southwest Charlotte. The move is a value-add play for an asset that dates from 1969 but which has had institutional management and various capital improvements over the years. The buyer paid an unspecified price.

"The asset brings an attractive yield, while offering upside potential to compete with surrounding market-rate product," Blackfin Managing Partner Doug Root said. He said Blackfin will undertake a targeted renovation program to unit interiors and common areas.

Blackfin was formed last year by Root and Andrew Buchanan, two multifamily residential specialists, to develop and acquire value-add assets on the Eastern Seaboard.

The investor's strategy is to target what its co-founders believe is an unfulfilled demand for Class-B properties, considering an overabundance in the Class-A pipeline.

Pressley Ridge is the company's second acquisition in the last three months. Previously it bought the 203-unit Calvert at Quarterfield Station, a property in the supply-constrained Glen Burnie, Maryland, a suburb of Baltimore.

"Blackfin pursues deals in all property spectrums, but prefers value-add," Buchanan said.