Continental Realty Buys Community Near Baltimore for $86M
The acquisition is the investor’s first in this suburban county.
Continental Realty Corp. has acquired Dartmoor Place at Oxford Square, a 258-unit, five-story property at 7200 Alden Way in Elkridge, Md., The firm bought it for $86.5 million from Preston Partners, the previous owner and developer. The community was built in 2019, and was 94 percent leased at the time of sale.
The acquisition of this is CRC’s first in Howard County. It is the fourth asset purchased by the Core Multifamily Fund, LP, a private equity fund sponsored by CRC in partnership with Brown Advisory. The Core Multifamily Fund focuses on acquiring new properties in high-growth suburban and urban markets throughout the Southeast, including Charleston, Charlotte, Nashville, Raleigh, Orlando, and Tampa.
As part of the acquisition, CRC will assume the in-place 35-year amortizing fixed-rate HUD loan at a 2.79 percent rate. Mike Muldowney, Executive Vice President at CBRE, represented the seller in this off-market transaction.
Dartmoor Place at Oxford Square features one-, two-, and three-bedroom floorplans ranging from 725 to 1,407 square feet. The average unit size is 996 square feet, with 85 percent of the homes being market-rate units and the remaining moderately priced dwelling units.
The apartments include interiors with nine-foot-ceilings, granite countertops, tile backsplashes, two-tone wood cabinetry, vinyl hardwood plank flooring, oversized windows, kitchen islands and closets. Select units also have balconies. The kitchens have stainless steel appliances and side-by-side refrigerators, and the community has full-size washers/dryers in a dedicated laundry room. The community was constructed per National Green Building Gold certification standards.
No shortage of surroundings
Ari Abramson, Vice President of acquisitions at Continental Realty Corporation, told Multi-Housing News, “This investment presented a unique opportunity to acquire a best-in-class asset within a vibrant, amenity-rich, transit-oriented development at the heart of the third-largest regional economy in the US and the seventh largest globally.”
The acquisition is also convenient for CRC itself. “Having focused on the Howard County area for some time, we were particularly drawn to this site’s proximity to our corporate headquarters, just 30 minutes away. This enables us to seamlessly scale our asset and property management operations across our 16-site statewide portfolio,” Abramson said.
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He said that Dartmoor Place at Oxford Square offers an exceptional quality of life thanks to its thoughtfully designed community, which features open spaces, trails, restaurants, retail amenities, a childcare facility and two top-ranked Howard County public schools.
Transportation is a key advantage for residents in the DMV region, with the nearby MARC Station providing easy access to two major cities. Interstate 95 and MD Route 295 are also close by.
CRC’s activities
Baltimore-based CRC now owns and manages 18 communities, totaling more than 4,800 apartments throughout Maryland, mostly in Baltimore City and Baltimore County.
Last month, CRC spent $44.5 million to purchase Bristol at New Riverside, a 166-unit multifamily family property in the greater Bluffton-Hilton Head, SC area.
According to Yardi Matrix, the first half of the year presented some hurdles to Baltimore’s multifamily market. Average advertised asking rents were up 0.5 percent on a trailing three-month basis through June to $1,717, 20 basis points higher than the US rate. As of May, the metro’s occupancy rate for stabilized properties was down 30 basis points to 94.5 percent, on par with the national average.
