SmartStop Affiliate Sells North Florida Student Housing Community
The property last changed hands for $47.5 million in 2017.
Strategic Student & Senior Housing Trust, an affiliate of SmartStop Asset Management, has sold YOUnion@Tallahassee, a 434-bed community serving Florida State University students in Tallahassee, Fla. SmartStop facilitated the deal on behalf of the REIT.
Yardi Matrix data shows that the seller acquired the purpose-built community directly from the developer in 2017, when Asset Plus Cos. received $47.5 million for the property.
Formerly known as The Domain at Tallahassee, the five-story building at 700 W. Virginia St. is located within walking distance of the FSU campus. Retail and dining opportunities are also within walking distance, while Florida A&M University is less than 3 miles from the community.
YOUnion@Tallahassee offers a mix of one- to four-bedroom apartments ranging from 659 to 1,682 square feet. All units are furnished, and include washers and dryers. Residents have access to a gym, a clubhouse, a swimming pool and more than 200 parking spaces. For the academic year that begins this fall, the community is already 98 percent preleased.
A healthy market
With preleasing for the 2022 fall semester underway, student housing continues to display healthy fundamentals, according to the latest Yardi Matrix report. Off-campus communities around top universities are set to fare particularly well, with both preleasing and rent rates in November 2021 above pre-pandemic levels.
The FSU market is off to a good start, with student housing developers fairly active in Tallahassee. As of December 2021, there were 1,111 units under construction at FSU, representing 2.5 percent of the enrolled students, the same report shows.
According to the data provider, four student housing communities totaling 2,136 beds changed hands in Tallahassee last year. The largest transaction closed in August, when Blackstone-owned company LivCor paid $111 million to Landmark Properties for The Standard at Tallahassee, a 769-bed community, located less than a mile from the FSU campus.