Birgo Capital Makes 1st Buffalo Acquisition

August 24, 2021

The company will also manage the garden-style 56-unit community in Lockport, N.Y.

Higher Grounds Apartments. Image courtesy of Birgo Capital

Birgo Capital has acquired Higher Grounds Apartments, a 56-unit community in Lockport, N.Y. The transaction marks the firm’s first purchase in the Greater Buffalo market.

Located at 261 Beattie Ave., the 1973-built garden-style property has two-bedroom apartments with floorplans averaging 850 square feet. Higher Grounds Apartments encompasses seven two-story buildings on a nearly 4-acre site.

Apartments are equipped with hardwood floors and dishwashers, and community amenities include laundry facilities and basement storage space. The new owner will assume management operations.

Higher Grounds Apartments is less than 2 miles from the South Transit Road retail corridor as well as downtown Lockport. The community is 25 miles from Buffalo, N.Y.

Although primarily focused on the Pittsburgh market, the investor now owns and operates more than 2,000 units in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and New York. Dan Croce, principal at Birgo Capital, indicated in a prepared statement that the company plans to continue its expansion in New York.

Buffalo’s positive trends

Earlier in August, co-developers People Inc. and Sinatra & Co. Real Estate opened a 90-unit affordable housing community in Buffalo. The development is 25 miles southwest of Higher Grounds.

Buffalo’s rental market has remained relatively well insulated from the health crisis that hit New York City and other major coastal metros the hardest. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Yardi Matrix data shows that Buffalo’s year-over-year rent growth for properties with 50 or more units has ranged from 2.7 percent to 5.2 percent—the latter recorded as of July 2021.

The metro’s pipeline kept active as well, with 2,102 units under construction as of late August. An additional 7,300 apartments were in planning and permitting stages.