CHANDLER, AZ-With assistance from an active multifamily property market, a Las Vegas property owner has sold the 221-unit Palm Trails for $21.95 million, getting $2.7 million more than the ask.

According to Chuck LaBenz, vice president with Phoenix-based Hendricks & Partners Inc., the property was marketed about 60 days, but ended up with a long stay in escrow before the deal closed. During the marketing period, however, the seller, Heers Demaree LLC, received 10 to 15 offers for the 99%-leased complex at 235 E. Ray Rd.

"This wasn't in south Chandler, which is a really booming area, but this area of Chandler is a nice one with decent neighborhoods," says LaBenz, who with Hendricks & Partners' Mark Forrester represented the seller. However, the booming market just to the south drove the buyer, Santa Fe, CA-based Palm Trails Realty LLC, to pay extra for the property, according to LaBenz. "We basically went back and told them $22 million, but struck a deal for a little less," he says.

Situated on nearly 14.3 acres, Palm Trails was completed in 2002. It has 163 two-bedroom units, each 1,004 sf and 48 three-bedroom apartments, with 1,113 sf. Monthly rents are $850 and $1,000.

"The seller said he was happy and the buyer is happy with the project," LaBenz says. He adds that the buyer, represented by Hendricks & Partners' Brett Long, isn't planning to convert the units into condos.

However if the buyer wanted to do that "they'd sell out immediately," he says. "If not, though, he still has a great property," LaBenz says.