Pierce Education Properties purchased Windermere Place, an off-campus community serving Ball State University students in Muncie, IN. It's part of PEP's goal to expand its footprint in the Midwest and is its second student housing buy in Indiana this year. This was a particularly difficult one, CEO Fred Pierce says, because the seller was a tenant-in-common group.

The Ball State University property is fully furnished, including a washer and dryer in every unit, and has balconies, basketball courts and a free tanning salon. Beginning this fall, PEP will add large flat-screen TVs in every unit and introduce property-operated shuttle service to/from campus. The $16.8M deal was financed with an $8.5M loan from KeyBank. Ball State has 21,000 students but only 7,200 beds of student housing on campus. PEP has purchased nine student housing properties ($200M, nearly 5,500 beds) in the last 22 months, and hopes to buy another $600M in the next two or three years.