A Chicago real estate investor recently bought a 322-unit Midtown apartment complex for $58.1 million.
Waterton paid about $180,000 per unit for Savannah Midtown, according to Atlanta-based Databank Inc., a firm that tracks real estate deals across the city. The project, located at 215 North Avenue, is part of an area in south Midtown where investors are once again pouring capital.
San Francisco-based Shorenstein Properties bought Atlanta’s 55-story Bank of America Plaza at North Avenue and Peachtree Street, the Southeast’s tallest office tower, for $220 million. Houston-based Weingarten Realty Investors (NYSE: WRI) is planning to buy the Atlanta Civic Center for $30 million.The Atlanta Civic Center is just south of Savannah Midtown.
Max Peek, executive vice president of acquisitions at Waterton, said Midtown consistently ranks as one of Atlanta’s top neighborhoods for renters due to its walkability and robust job market, fueled in part by the city’s rapidly growing tech sector.
“Companies that don’t already have a presence here are opening research and development labs at Tech Square – a five-minute walk from Savannah Midtown – where they can more easily recruit talent coming out of Georgia Tech,” he said in a statement. “As more businesses move to the neighborhood, demand for rental housing will only continue to increase.”
Ricky Jones, a director in Franklin Street Real Estate Services’ Atlanta office, said the Big Peach is an international city market with significant upside and Midtown is at the center of it.
“The Midtown Alliance has worked tirelessly to make Midtown a safe walkable neighborhood that truly embodies the live-work-play mantra,” he said. “Midtown is an attractive neighborhood to all demographics because of its proximity to many of Atlanta’s staples like Piedmont Park, The Atlanta BeltLine, The High Museum, The Fox Theatre, and Emory’s Proton Center, as well as having over 15 million square feet of A+ office space, exceptional dining, top-rated hotels, shops and festivals.”
The deal was brokered by David Gutting and Derrick Bloom of Jones Lang Lasalle Inc. (NYSE: JLL).
Waterton owns and manages six other rental communities totaling nearly 1,900 units in the Atlanta area. Savannah Midtown is Waterton’s third multifamily acquisition in 2016.
Waterton’s portfolio includes more than $4 billion in assets, including about 20,000 multifamily units and 13 hotels.
