By Jack Stubbs
Bellevue-based Curtis Capital Group, a national real estate investment firm that owns and operates multifamily apartment communities, recently expanded it’s Puget Sound region portfolio—on September 10th, the company spent $30.24 million, or roughly $179,762 per unit, to acquire the Orion Apartments in Tacoma, Pierce County records show. The seller of the property was Investors Management Group Inc. (“IMG”), a multifamily real estate investment firm headquartered in Woodland Hills, California.
The transaction was brokered by Kenny Dudunakis, Ben Johnson, and David Sorensen of Berkadia Commercial Mortgage LLC, according to a statement on the seller’s web site.
The 168-unit Orion Apartments, located at 29 St. Helens Ave. in Tacoma’s Stadium District, is a 16-story high-rise property constructed in 1977, according to the listing on apartments.com. Orion Apartments offers a mix of one- and two-bedroom units—complete with wooden plank flooring and fully-equipped kitchens—that rent for between $1,325 and $1,610, according to the property’s web site. Some of the community amenities available to residents include a 24-hour fitness facility, rooftop terrace, a 12-seat cinema, and a 1,500 square foot residential lounge.
Orion Apartments sits at the corner of S. Stadium Way and Division Ave., and is just blocks from Wright Park—which comprises the WW Seymour Botanical Conservatory—and the MultiCare Tacoma General Hospital. The property is also a couple miles north of University of Washington Tacoma, located in the city’s Central Business District, and offers easy access to Interstate-5, which connects the Pierce County city with other cities to the north such as Federal Way, SeaTac, Renton and Seattle.
Founded in 2003, Curtis Capital Group’s acquisition strategy takes the company to metros with economies that have a diverse and expanding job base, healthy apartment-market fundamentals, and a compelling lifestyle component that attracts and retains the city’s residents, according to its web site. The company is constantly researching and evaluating new markets in addition to the markets in which it is already invested.
According to The Registry’s reporting, Curtis Capital Group was last active in the Puget Sound region’s multifamily market in April 2018, when it sold the 95-unit Des Moines Station Apartments—west of downtown Kent and about five miles south of SeaTac airport—for $17.2 million, or roughly $181,052 per unit, to Tacoma-based Mayer Built Homes Inc.
In February 2018, the company sold the 66-unit Spinnaker Landing Apartments and the 86-unit Regatta Apartments in Des Moines for a combined $28.9 million to Orange County, CA-based Investment Property Group.
IMG owns and operates a $75 million portfolio of multifamily properties throughout the Pacific Northwest, according to the company’s web site. IMG purchased the Orion (formerly known as Commencement Terrace) in 2014 and embarked on a large-scale renovation of the property.
“We purchased the property at an attractive price point in a dynamic location—Tacoma is undergoing an impressive renaissance—and we offered competitive leasing rates for Stadium District renters,” IMG President and CEO Neil Schimmel said in a statement released by the company. “We modernized apartment and penthouse interiors, added a 1,500-square-foot luxury community lounge, a rooftop terrace, state-of-the-art fitness center, yoga room, movie theater, barbecue and fire pit area and distinguishable rooftop LED lighting. Our ultimate goal here was to improve the sense of community, and we succeeded.”
