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Signature Properties has made its first Virginia acquisition with a Falls Church apartment deal that closed this week.
The Baltimore-based investor acquired The Glen, a 152-unit property in Falls Church, for $29M, Melnick Real Estate Advisors founder Scott Melnick, who brokered the deal, tells Bisnow.
Boca Raton, Florida-based Monitor Corp., the seller in the deal, owned the Falls Church property for 30 years. The apartment community, built in 1978, sits near the intersection of Lee Highway and West Street, about a mile inside the Beltway. It is about 2 miles from the Mosaic District mixed-use development.
The Glen features 10 garden-style buildings on a 5-acre lot with 270 surface parking spaces. Its average unit size is 583 SF, and it is 99% occupied with rent collections remaining over 98%, Melnick said. The buyer plans to invest over $1M to renovate the property.
The acquisition represents the fist foray into Virginia for Signature Properties. The firm, founded in Downtown Baltimore in 2007, owns at least 14 multifamily properties in Maryland. Over the last 18 months it has closed at least four acquisitions in Prince George's County, Silver Spring and Baltimore, all of which Melnick's firm has brokered.
"It's a natural progression for one of the most active buyers in Maryland, starting in the Baltimore region and Prince George's and Montgomery counties, and Northern Virginia was the natural next step," Melnick said. "Their specialty is workforce housing, and it's harder to find workforce housing in Northern Virginia, and that's what this is, so it fits their platform."
Melnick, who founded his Bethesda-based brokerage firm in 2018, also announced this week the firm is opening a new office in Miami. It hired Jenny May and Scott Koch from Miami-based Apex Capital Realty to lead the office.
“Scott and I looked at numerous firms in the market that we felt shared our vision and philosophy, and after lengthy discussions, we were really impressed with the experience, energy, and integrity of the MREA team and their deep relationships within the industry," May said in a release.
Melnick decided to open a Miami office because many of his D.C. clients have sought to execute 1031 Exchange transactions in which they flip a D.C.-area property for one in South Florida.
"We targeted South Florida because a lot of Washingtonians selling property that they've owned for 30 years, they want us to find them a property in Florida because that's where they're spending time," Melnick said. "They also like South Florida because it doesn't have rent control or TOPA."
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