Fourth Avenue Capital Starts Work on Washington Project

This community is rising in a mixed-use campus.

Fourth Avenue Capital has started construction on Signal Point Apartment Homes, a community in the mixed-use Meadowwood Technology Campus in Liberty Lake, Wash., a suburb of Spokane. The 240-unit property is slated for completion in mid-2025.

Signal Point will offer a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom units ranging from 733 to 1,318 square feet. Its apartments will include quartz countertops, stainless steel appliances, under-cabinet lighting and oversized windows. Some units will have walk-in closets and extra storage space.

Common amenities will include a clubhouse with entertainment areas, social spaces and private workstations. The property has a full-size gym equipped with cardio machines, free weights and CrossFit options, all overlooking the pool area and lawn. Other outdoor amenities include a living area with a dining section and fireplace, a spa, barbecue grills and a dog park.

Primely located

Meadowwood Technology Campus is a 70-acre property that includes four office buildings totaling 450,000 square feet. In 2022, Liberty Lake approved a zoning change that would allow uses besides office, including residential, as reported by the Spokane Journal.

That year, a major tenant, Liberty Mutual Insurance Co., vacated more 100,000 square feet at Meadowwood in response to shifting work patterns among its employees, specifically more work-at-home.

Liberty Lake is a fast-growing town near the border with Idaho, with a population of about 12,000, up from about 7,600 in 2010, according to Census Bureau data. The town is has a median household income of some $102,000 a year, compared with $94,600 for Washington state and the U.S. median of $77,700.

Residents of Signal Point, which is located at 24085 E. Mission Ave., will have close access to the region’s recreational facilities. Within a mile and a half of the property are the Liberty Lake Golf Course, Meadowwood Golf Course and Rocky Hill Park.

Fourth Avenue Capital, headquartered in Seattle and Spokane, specializes in middle-market multifamily assets in the Pacific Northwest, and plans expansion through acquisition. The company has acquired over 1,000 units thus far and oversees a development pipeline exceeding 500 units.

Eastern Washington sees rising vacancies, but also rents

Eastern Washington, including its most active market of Spokane, has seen apartment vacancies rise over the last few years as more product comes online, according to Kidder Mathews, coming in at 8.3 percent vacant as of the second quarter of 2024. As recently as 2020, vacancy was about 5 percent.

Still, demand is keeping rents up. In the same quarter, the average rental rate for the eastern part of the state was $1,319 a month. Rents only broke $1,000 a month in the market on average in 2018, Kidder Mathews reports.

Investor interest in the market, which slumped with rising interest rates, has revived somewhat, the report also notes. There was a significant rise in sales quarter-over-quarter this year, reaching $113 million in the second quarter compared to $25 million in the first quarter of 2024.

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