Blue Magma Acquires 3 Atlanta-Area Properties

Blue Magma Residential, together with Montreal-based Rosdev Group, has acquired a 918-unit apartment portfolio near Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport for a total of $44.4 million. The seller was VCP and the transaction was brokered by Cushman & Wakefield.

The three communities include the $18.2 million, 384-unit Lakeview Trails; the $17.8 million, 324-unit Preserve at Bent Creek; and the $8.4 million, 210-unit Epic Brookside. Epic Brookside and Lakeview Trails are at 5720 and 5724 Riverdale Road in College Park, Ga., while Preserve at Bent Creek is at 1994 Bent Creek Way in Atlanta.

Tampa-based Blue Magma is planning to treat the properties as value-add plays. Representing a price per unit of $48,365, the communities will undergo more than $6 million in exterior and interior upgrades, according to the buyer.

The communities will also be rebranded by the buyer. Epic Brookside will become The Park at Leeds, and Lakeview Trails will be marketed as The Park at Palatine. The Preserve at Bent Creek will become The Park at Castleton.

Aggressive Buyer

Now having amassed nearly 2,500 units locally, the latest portfolio buy represents the fifth, sixth and seventh Atlanta-area communities acquired for Blue Magma since 2015, according to managing partner Reuven Oded.

“Blue Magma Residential is continuing in its strategy of acquiring value-add properties in the Southeast U.S. where employment, demographic growth and corporate relocations are all solid and trending upwards,” Oded said.

Apartment rental growth in metro Atlanta has been solid recently. The average rent in the metro area was $1,182 per month at the end of 2017, an increase of 2.6 percent for the year, according to Yardi Matrix apartment data. Over a three-year period ending at the end of last year, the average apartment rent in metro Atlanta had increased by 15 percent, compared with the national increase of 12 percent.