Columbia Student Housing Community Sells

Elevate231. Image courtesy of Rialto Capital Advisors

Aspen Square Management has acquired Elevate231, a 972-bedroom student housing community serving students at the University of Missouri (MU) in Columbia, Mo. Transwestern negotiated the transaction on behalf of the seller, Rialto Capital Advisors.

The 2013-built asset consists of 318 townhome-style apartments averaging 1,750 square feet. Floorplans offer a mix of two-, three- and four-bedroom units.

Located at 3600 Aspen Heights Parkway, roughly 3 miles from the MU campus, the value-add property had rent rates as low as 22 percent below the market average at the time of the sale, Transwestern Senior Director Mike McGaughy said in prepared remarks.

Mizzou market

According to data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the cost of off-campus accommodation for students at the MU-Columbia decreased by 3.4 percent during the 2020-2021 university year compared to the previous year, while the cost of on-campus living over the same period increased by 1.5 percent.

Enrollment at the MU has been slowly increasing in the last couple of years, reaching 31,089 students ahead of the 2020 fall semester, NCES data shows. The trend continued this year despite pandemic-related insecurity, according to a recent Yardi Matrix webinar.

The Transwestern team that negotiated the sale involved Senior Managing Directors Mike McGaughy and Jon Kleinberg, as well as Director TJ Redmond of Balke Brown Transwestern. According to Kleinberg, Elevate321 is the largest student housing property to change hands in the area this year.

In July, the same Transwestern team arranged the disposition of The Den, another Columbia, Mo., student housing community located roughly 2 miles from the MU campus. Hamilton Point Investments was the buyer of the 552-bedroom property.