The buyers plan to sink approximately $750,000 into the complex before raising the rents, John Rhoades with the Phoenix office of Hendricks & Partners tells GlobeSt.com. The property was 95% occupied at the time of the sale.

Advertised rents at the complex range from $609 per unit to $689 per unit per month for one bedroom apartments. One-bedroom units range in size from 650 sf to 820 sf. Two bedroom apartments at the complex have 1,000 sf and range in price from $799 to $809 per unit.

According to statistics recently released on the Phoenix multifamily market as of June 2002 by RealFacts, units in the Phoenix central core are leasing for an average of $677 per unit per month. Occupancies in the main Phoenix submarket, which make up approximately 44% of the MSA's total inventory, are at 90.5%.

RealFacts reports that rents are in decline for the first time since the early 1990s. Rents posted at an average of $709 per unit in March 2002 to the current average across the MSA of $707 per unit. That's a tiny loss of 0.3% over the past quarter, notes the report, but that loss reduces the gain from a year ago to just 0.1%. This may make the buyers plan to raise rents more difficult.

The sellers, Arcadia Villa Apartments LLC of Eden Prairie, MN have owned the complex since August 2001, says Rhoades. The property garnered a 7.5% cap rate. Rhoades notes that a selling point for the complex was its primo location at 40th Street and Camelback Road in Phoenix.

While Rhoades was close to the deal, Patrick Slavin also of the Phoenix office of Hendricks & Partners actually negotiated the transaction.