Waterfront Apartment Complex Fetches $35M

HULL, MA-Cornerstone Real Estate Advisors has paid $34.6 million for a 162-unit apartment complex. The trade got the Hartford buyer a five-year-old, class A waterfront property with 94% occupancy.

Richard Robinson, a principal with Apartment Realty Advisors of Burlington, which brokered the transaction for seller AvalonBay Communities, Inc. tells GlobeSt.com that at least five other bidders were in contention for the One Avalon Dr. property, known as Avalon Estates. "It's a very unique asset in terms of its location near the water."

Built along a peninsula for $20.1 million in 2001 by the Alexandria, VA-based seller, the 20-building property features a fitness center, clubhouse and heated pool along with a mix of one- and two-bedroom apartments that rent for between $1,175 to $1,725 per month. Robinson said the publicly traded REIT opted to sell the asset in order to pursue other development ventures.

One of those ventures was the acquisition of a 62-acre parcel in the upscale beachfront community of Cohasset where AvalonBay plans to develop a 200-unit apartment community. Terms of that King Streetland buy were unavailable, as was information on the firm's proposed apartment development. William M. McLaughlin, senior vice president at AvalonBay, said in a statement the complex may be the only apartment community built in that town in a generation.

The transaction was one of several dispositions by Avalon Bay in the last year. During 2005, the company disposed of seven communities for an aggregate gross sales price of $351.5 million. The proceeds from those sales have provided a source of capital to fund the company's other development activities, says Robinson, who represented the company in both the property sale and the land acquisition. Cornerstone, an investment advisor and member of MassMutual Financial Group, was self-represented.