The deal is the biggest multifamily transaction of its kind this year, area brokers tell GlobeSt.com. Post expects to sell a seventh apartment community to JRC in the third quarter for $28 million, a sum that includes $15 million of tax-exempt debt.

The five local properties are the 18-year-old, 494-unit Post Canyon in suburban north Atlanta; the 17-year-old, 410-unit Post Chase in suburban northeast Atlanta; the 16-year-old, 446-unit Post Court in northeast Atlanta; the 16-year-old, 166-unit Post Lane in northwest Atlanta; and the 752-unit Post Mill, also in the northwest, built in phases in 1985 and 1986. In Orlando, Post sold the 16-year-old, 740-unit Post Lake in suburban Apopka.

In a prepared statement, Post president and CEO David P. Stockert calls the sale "a critical part of our strategy to harvest value from our older properties and balance our portfolio geographically." He adds, "With this transaction, we have lessened the impact that economic conditions in any one market may have on our financial performance and reduced the average age of the portfolio."

Construction industry sources who have worked on comparable apartment projects tell GlobeSt.com the replacement cost of the 3,008 units today would be at least $80,000 per unit. That would make the $65,492 price JRC paid for the assets a prudent purchase, area brokers tell GlobeSt.com. Post's Stockert says the sale "and the outstanding pricing we achieved, is a critical step as we executive our strategic plan and deliver enhanced value to shareholders."

JRC is assuming about $104 million of tax-exempt mortgage debt on five of the properties, Stockert says. These low-floater tax-exempt bonds carry a variable interest rate which was 1.7%, including bond fees, on May 31.

The aggregate sales price for the six properties "results in an approximately 6.6% capitalization rate, based on the trailing 12 months net operating income for these properties (including a capital expenditure reserve of $300 per unit and a 3% management fee)" for the fiscal period that ended March 31 of this year, Stockert says.

Tom Senkbeil, Post's executive vice president and chief investment officer, says the company's gross asset sales over the past four years total more than $1 billion. "This transaction substantially completes the latest phase of our asset sales program we announced in November," Senkbeil says.

The Apartment Group LLC, a division of Cushman & Wakefield of Georgia Inc., brokered the five Atlanta properties. Apartment Realty Advisors Inc. handled the Post Lane sale in Orlando. Post didn't disclose prices of the individual communities.