TruAmerica Ups the Ante with $255M Buy

LOS ANGELES—TruAmerica Multifamily has purchased a seven-property multifamily portfolio from Equus Capital Partners for $255 million. TruAmerica purchased the properties in partnership with AllState and Guardian Life Insurance Co., as well as a syndicate of other institutional investors. Including this portfolio, TruAmerica has purchased $1 billion in value-add multifamily real estate with AllState and Guardian.

The properties are located in Seattle, Portland and Salt Lake City, all of which have been target markets for the value-add investor. “We have been targeting the Northwest, both Portland and Seattle, because we feel that they have some of the strongest apartment fundamentals in the US, let alone the Western US,” Noah Hochman, senior managing director of acquisitions and investor relations at TruAmerica Multifamily and the acquisitions lead on this transaction, tells GlobeSt.com. “We think that there is an affordability issue with all of the new product coming online, and there is a need in the B space to renovate and reposition properties to provide better quality product for those that can't afford new construction and are also priced out of the central-core CBD locations. This portfolio is a natural fit for the strategy that we have been focusing on.”

Equus Capital Partners originally marketed the seven assets separately with different brokers; however, TruAmerica sought to purchase the assets as a portfolio and leveraged its brokerage relationships and its relationship with the seller to turn this into a portfolio sale. “We were able to aggregate them all into one deal, given our relationships with CBRE and Berkadia and the relationships that we established with the seller,” Mark Enfield, chief administrative officer at TruAmerica Multifamily, tells GlobeSt.com.

The portfolio totals 1,829 apartment units. In line with its value-add business model, TruAmerica plans to invest an additional $30 million in property improvements. “On the basic level, we will take care of deferred maintenance, but a majority of the money will going into improving the common areas, painting the properties, improving the clubhouses, and most importantly, improving the interiors of the units with new appliances, new flooring, fixtures, and so on,” says Hochman. TruAmerica expects to hold these properties for five years.

Jon Hallgrimson, Eli Hanacek, Frank Bosl, Graham Taylor and Carrie Kahn of CBRE and Greg Barratt of Berkadia represented both the buyer and seller in the transaction.