By Jack Stubbs
An apartment community in Des Moines yesterday on Wednesday, April 4th sold for $17.2 million, or approximately $181,052 per unit, according to public records filed with King County. The buyer was Tacoma-based Mayer Built Homes Inc., a family-run homebuilding business. The seller was Curtis Capital Group, a multifamily investment firm headquartered on the Eastside in Bellevue.
The seller is making a profit on the property, which it acquired for $9.25 million in March, 2015.
For Curtis Capital Group, the recent sale of the apartment community represented a strategic move made by the company at the right time, according to Colin Curtis, partner at Curtis Capital Group. “We bought the property three years ago and I think it represented a strategy we were looking at in Seattle: units that were not renovated in the South End,” he said. “We completed our renovation plan and we found a good buyer; the transaction went really well. And we’re excited to move on.”
The two-story Des Moines Station Apartments, located at 2060 S Kent-Des Moines Road, was built in 1978 and contains 95 units, according to the property listing on apartments.com. The asset offers a mix of studio, one- and two-bedroom units, according to the property’s web site. The studios are 400 square feet and rent for $940 while the one-bedroom units are 700 square feet and rent for $1,225. The two-bedroom units total 800 square feet and rent for $1,375.
The units include wood-style flooring, updated appliances, triple-pane windows and balcony. Some of the community amenities include clubhouse, fitness center, covered parking and 24-hour emergency maintenance services.
The apartment property is approximately four miles to the west of downtown Kent and roughly five miles south of SeaTac airport. Additionally, the asset is approximately one mile from access to the intersection of I-5 and Washington State Route 516 and half a mile from Highline College.
Des Moines Station is also within half a mile of several other apartment communities in Des Moines. Some of these include the 37-unit Whispering Brook Apartments; the 136-unit Newport Apartments built in 1988; and the 72-unit Hillwood Condominiums.
Originally established in 1957, Mayer Built Homes was reestablished by Joe Mayer in 1992. Since 1992, the company has built almost 100 single-family residences in Pierce County, and has also developed raw land for subdivisions, according to its web site. The company currently has homes available Northeast Tacoma and Gig Harbor.
Founded in 2003, Curtis Capital Group specializes in the ownership and acquisition of multifamily apartment communities. In terms of its acquisition strategy, the company looks for metros with economies that have an expanding job base and healthy apartment-market fundamentals. The company looks to acquire properties that can be repositioned through strategic renovations, improved management and enhanced marketing, according to its web site.
The company has apartment properties In Seattle, Austin, San Diego, Minneapolis, Phoenix, and Jackson Hole, Wyoming. In Des Moines, the company’s portfolio also includes the 69-unit Spinnaker Landing Apartments and the 89-unit Regatta Apartments.
