Historic B’more Apartments Change Hands

By Laura Calugar

The Frederick Douglass Apartments in Baltimore

Marcus & Millichap completed the sale of Frederick Douglass Apartments, a 99-unit multifamily and retail property in Sandtown, a West Baltimore neighborhood. The asset sold for $6.3 million to an undisclosed out-of-market buyer. The real estate investment services firm had the exclusive listing to market the property and procured the buyer. Capital T Partners LLC owned the three-acre site, according to Maryland state property records. Capital T had purchased the apartment complex for $2.9 million back in 2013. 

Located at 1645 North Calhoun St., the asset consists of a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom units as well as two commercial units occupied by non-profit organizations, Penn North Kids Safe Zone and Penn North Recovery. Twenty of the apartments are designed as transitional housing for drug and alcohol addicts. Penn North, Baltimore’s longest standing recovery community center operated by Maryland Community Health Initiatives Inc., handles these units in the four-story building. According to Yardi Matrix data, the community includes a playground, laundry facilities and 100 parking spaces.

“There were a lot of moving parts, with the tenants subsidized housing programs, loan assumption and out-of-market buyers. This transaction was yet another example of out-of-market buyers shifting capital to a higher yield market,” said Cameron Webb, senior associate in the firm’s Washington, D.C., office, in prepared remarks.

The Frederick Douglass Apartments is historically certified by the Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation. The property used to serve as the second oldest high school for African Americans in the U.S. until the 1980s, when the asset was converted into apartments following the school’s relocation.

Recently, Marcus & Millichap also sold 1524 18th St. NW, a four-unit vacant apartment property in Washington, D.C., for $2.3 million.

Image courtesy of Yardi Matrix