MERION STATION, PA-A developer based in Studio City, CA has bought Merion Manor, a 31-unit apartment building at 212 Idris Rd., for just under $5.6 million. The buyer plans to convert the building, which was built in 1925 and is fully leased, to condominiums.

While properties on the Main Line trade for well in excess of the suburban-area median, "$179,129 a unit is a record for Lower Merion," Spencer Yablon, an associate in the Philadelphia office of Marcus & Millichap, tells GlobeSt.com. Yablon and colleague Brad Nathanson were the listing agents for the seller, a local-area family partnership that Yablon says, "is divesting its apartment assets to get into other, less management-intensive real estate."

"There was a huge amount of competition for this property," he says, attributing the interest to the location, size of units and the condition of the building itself. The building is just across from the regional train station and about 20 minutes from Philadelphia. "Units average about 1,400 sf, reach to more than 2,000 sf and have fireplaces and fine details, and the building has been very well maintained." Rental rates range from $1,275 to $1,625 a month.

"Unless we're required to be quiet about a listing, we make a lot of noise," Yablon says. Word spread to Michael Tepper of Prestige Group, who identified the buyer on the other side of the country. The same company also has some conversion projects under way in Virginia.