SB Real Estate Partners Expands Phoenix Apartment Portfolio

The firm acquired the 114-unit Bloom 24 for $34.2 million and has two additional properties under contract in the market.

SB Real Estate Partners has been active in the Phoenix market. This year, the firm sold two propertied for a total of $100 million, and is adding an additional three assets to its portfolio. SB Real Estate has acquired Bloom 24, a 114-unit garden-style apartment community for $34.2 million, and it has two additional properties under contract and scheduled to close in April.

SB Real Estate’s founder and managing principal Srijin Bandyopadhyay said in a statement that the company has taken an “aggressive investment approach in the Phoenix MSA” due to strong multifamily fundamentals. This includes population, job and local economic growth. Phoenix has been ranked as a top growth in the US, and in the years leading up to the pandemic had the highest rate of population growth in the nation. According to a Hoyt Advisory Services study and commissioned by the National Apartment Association and National Multifamily Housing Council in 2019, the apartment industry contributed $73.2 billion to the Arizona State economy and $53.8 billion to Phoenix’s local economy.

In 2022, not much has changed. The market is still considered one of the hottest apartment markets in the country, according to Greg Willett, VP of Marcus & Millichap’s Institutional Property Advisors, who says Tempe, Chandler and Gilbert on the Westside of Phoenix are particularly active. Development is heaviest those suburbas as well as in Downtown Phoenix, where investors are focused on rehabbing class-B and classC properties. According to Marcus & Millichap research, net absorption will surpass 19,000 units, the highest annual total since at least 2000; however, the new construction activity will also lead to a slight increase in vacancy to 2.8%, and rent growth will settle from last year’s 21.9% gain but remain strong.

Located at 2323 East Flower Street on the border of Biltmore and Camelback East areas of Phoenix,, Bloom 24 was built in 1973. SB Real Estate plans in invest $2 million to improve and upgrade the property, including the building exterior, common area amenities and unit interiors. The property has a mix of one- and two-bedroom units.