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CHICAGO-Excelsior LaSalle Property Fund, based here, is buying a five-property student housing portfolio. The fund, which is advised by Chicago-based LaSalle Investment Management, is acquiring the portfolio from FortGroup Development Corp., based in St. Augustine, FL. The fund has already closed on four of the properties with a total acquisition price of $148.5 million. Once the fund closes on the fifth property, the total portfolio acquisition price will be almost $200 million, says Dorothy Jackman, a senior associate in Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services' Tampa office. Sources say the yet-to-be-closed property is the 312-unit Campus Lodge in Lutz, FL.

The portfolio has a total of 1,524 units and more than 4,500 beds. Besides the Lutz property, the portfolio includes the 504-unit Cabana Beach at 1601 SW 51st Terrace, Gainesville, FL; the 276-unit Cabana Beach at 1250 Sadler Dr., San Marcos, TX; the 192-unit Campus Lodge at 2900 Old Highway 63 South, Columbia, MO; and the 240-unit Lodge of Athens at 211 North Ave., Athens, GA. Campus Lodge is 85% occupied, Cabana Beach – San Marcos is 90% occupied, and the Athens property is 95% occupied, according to sources. Analysis for the other two properties was unavailable.

The buildings were constructed between 2001 and 2007. Phase two of Cabana Beach in Gainesville was delivered during the transaction, Jackman tells GlobeSt.com. All of the student housing communities have fully furnished units. There is a separate lease for each bedroom and each bedroom has its own bathroom and separate keyed entry, Jackman says. The majority of the units are two-, three-, and four-bedroom units. The average weighted unit-size is in excess of 1,300 sf, she says.

Jackman said she could not disclose further details on the fifth transaction yet. The deal involves loan assumption and the sales transaction could close "as early as a week or two," she says. The sale "was a decision by the seller to take his capital out of the deal and more that capital to grow a second generation of student housing," she says. Jackman said she believes the acquisition is the first student-housing buy for Excelsior LaSalle Property Fund. "It gave them a lot of units in a lot of different markets," she says.

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Excelsior LaSalle Takes $200M Student Housing

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