UDR Closes $297.7M Multi-State Apartment Portfolio Sale

By Dees Stribling, Contributing Editor

New York—The UDR Multi-State Portfolio sale, which was inked earlier this year, has been finalized. New York-based DRA Advisors has acquired the nine-property, 3,187-unit portfolio for about $297.7 million from Denver-based UDR Inc.

At the time of the sale, portfolio-wide occupancy was more than 95 percent. The properties are concentrated in Jacksonville (five assets), Dallas (two assets) and Richmond (two assets).  The properties were developed in the 1990s and 2000s.

The properties include the Antlers, Green Tree Place, the Kensley Apartment Homes, St. Johns Plantation and Westland Park, all in Jacksonville. In Dallas, the portfolio includes the Belmont and the Belmont Townhomes, while in Richmond, the two are Dominion Creekwood and Dominion West End.

According to ARA, which represented UDR in the deal, each of the markets boasts sustainable projected rental growth and a limited development pipeline over the next 36 months. The properties themselves are in highly visible locations with correspondingly high levels of traffic volume, the brokerage notes.

Jacksonville is a particularly good market to be at the moment, according to investment sales specialist Marcus & Millichap. Re-employed residents and former homeowners have been seeking out rental housing in considerable numbers recently, the company reports, resulting in the largest decrease in apartment vacancies and the sharpest increase in occupancy rates among Florida metro markets.

The Jacksonville Class-A vacancy rate dropped to less than 6 percent in the second quarter, even lower among the newer properties near St. Johns Town Center, Marcus & Millichap reports. Cap rates here have compressed slightly since the start of this year to the low-9 percent range, but assets in locations with strong resident demand generators and solid current operations can trade modestly lower.