[IMGCAP(1)]QUINCY, MA-Following up on its purchase earlier this autumn of a Westborough apartment community, Northland Investment Corp. of Newton has another suburban Boston multifamily asset under agreement, with sources telling GlobeSt.com that the firm is taking on the luxurious Highlands at Faxon Woods in Quincy. The 196-unit property is expected to sell in the $35-million range.

"They are absolutely the buyers," one source tells GlobeSt.com. Calls to Northland and brokers at Cushman & Wakefield who are representing the sellers were not returned by press deadline. The complex was developed by Roseland Property Co. of Short Hills, NJ, and Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers, the investment arm of MassMutual Financial Group. Officials at those firms were unavailable for comment on the situation, but sources insist Northland has Faxon Woods tied up, and say a closing is anticipated by year's end.

[IMGCAP(2)]Located at 2001 Falls Blvd., the Highlands at Faxon Woods opened in 2002 as a senior living community restricted to people aged 55 and over, but has since evolved into a market-rate apartment offering. According to one document, rents run between $1,300 for one-bedroom units and $1,940 for two bedroom units. The property's past life as a senior living development yielded such elements as elevator access to all floors and a gated garage. Highlands at Faxon Woods also features a 6,000-sf clubhouse, business center, fitness facility and a courtyard garden providing views of the Atlantic Ocean. "They don't get much nicer," a multifamily specialist familiar with the property tells GlobeSt.com. Units range from 750 sf to 1,045 sf.

Northland is an experienced owner and manager of multifamily and commercial properties whose platform extends across the country into such markets as Arizona, Florida, Texas and the Midwest. The company is also active in southern New England, especially in Connecticut and Massachusetts. On the home front, the firm owns the Cliffside Apartments in Sunderland, Endicott Green in Danvers and the Tatnuck Arms in Worcester. In September, the company closed on the Residences at Westborough Station in Westborough, a 120-unit upscale multifamily property developed by AvalonBay Communities.

The Faxon Woods sale is the latest multifamily property being handled this year by Cushman & Wakefield's Capital Markets Group. Among other major apartment sales brokered this year by the firm's Boston office include the $41 million sale of the 399-unit Colonial Village in Plainville; the 312-unit CambridgePark Place in Cambridge that sold for $103 million in August; and Granada Highlands in Malden, which Equity Residential Properties reaped $181 million from when it sold this summer.