BALTIMORE — A partnership between funds managed by Ares Management and TruAmerica Multifamily has purchased a 1,402-unit multifamily portfolio in suburban Baltimore for $236 million. The acquisition included Dominion at Eden Brook and Dominion Kings Place in Columbia, Lakeside Mill in Owings Mills, Ellicott Grove in Ellicott City, Arborview at Riverside & Liriope in Belcamp and Dominion Constant Friendship in Abingdon. The partnership will implement a multimillion-dollar renovation and repositioning program across the portfolio. Exterior upgrades will consist of landscaping, painting, updated signage and common area updates. Approximately half of the residential units will be renovated to include new appliance packages, faux-wood hard-surface flooring, new countertops and upgrades to existing cabinets.
OCEAN CITY, MD. — Washington, Del.-based Applied Bank has provided a $21 million construction and permanent loan for a new Hyatt Place Hotel located at 16th Street and Boardwalk in Ocean City. The new 105-room, seven-story hotel will replace the existing Seascape Motel, which opened in the 1950s. The property will feature a restaurant, bar, outdoor veranda, meeting rooms, room service, indoor and outdoor swimming pools and a fitness center, as well as six shops fronting Boardwalk. The owner, PRBR Hospitality LLC, has owned the site since 1978.
COLLEGE PARK, MD. — A partnership between Greystar Real Estate Partners LLC and Rockpoint Group has acquired University View, a 1,573-bed student housing community located near the University of Maryland campus in College Park. The joint venture plans to implement full interior upgrades to units and enhancements to the common areas and amenity spaces, including the conversion of the existing pool area into a resort-style amenity. The two-building property features studio, one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom units alongside 9,218 square feet of ground-floor retail space. Community amenities include two fitness centers, a barre and yoga studio, instructor-led fitness classes and shuttle service to campus.
BETHESDA, MD. — Pebblebrook Hotel Trust has closed on the $50.1 million sale of DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Bethesda-Washington DC located at 8120 Wisconsin Ave. in Bethesda. The 270-room hotel features a business center, fitness center, coin-operated laundry service, restaurant, bar and lounge, meeting rooms and complimentary Wi-Fi. The buyer was undisclosed.
WASHINGTON, D.C. AND NEW YORK — The board of trustees at Vornado Realty Trust (NYSE: VNO) has approved the tax-free spinoff of its Washington, D.C., portfolio and has agreed to the subsequent merger of the new entity with JBG Cos. The transaction is valued at $8.4 billion. The company, known as JBG Smith Properties, will be structured as a real estate investment trust (REIT). Vornado shareholders are expected to own roughly 74 percent of the new company, JBG’s limited partners are expected to own approximately 20 percent and JBG management is expected to own the remaining 6 percent. JBG’s senior management team will lead JBG Smith, which will have a portfolio totaling 50 office properties spanning 11.8 million square feet, 18 multifamily properties totaling 4,451 residential units and 11 other properties totaling about 700,000 square feet. The new company will be the largest landlord to the U.S. government in Washington, D.C. The portfolio is situated in Washington, D.C., as well as the suburban Maryland markets of Columbia and Bethesda and Crystal City, Pentagon City, Rosslyn, Arlington and Reston in Virginia. Additionally, JBG Smith will have a pipeline of projects under construction and land for future development that could span more …
CLARKSBURG, MD. — Simon has opened Clarksburg Premium Outlets, a 392,000-square-foot outlet mall located at 22705 Clarksburg Road in Clarksburg, about 30 miles north of Washington, D.C. Simon developed the property in a joint venture arrangement with New England Properties and Streetscape. Retailers operating at Clarksburg Premium Outlets include a Nike Factory Store, Under Armour, Ann Taylor Factory, Banana Republic Factory, Gap Outlet, Armani Outlet, Kate Spade New York, Michael Kors, Saks Fifth Avenue OFF 5th, All Saints and Tory Burch. The property is the country’s first two-story outdoor outlet shopping center and Simon’s second LEED-certified Premium Outlet center.
BALTIMORE AND WASHINGTON, D.C. — An affiliate of HCP Inc. (NYSE: HCP), a seniors housing REIT based in Irvine, Calif., has purchased a portfolio of assisted living and memory care properties in the Mid-Atlantic for approximately $186.3 million. Developed between 1993 and 2013, The Morningside House Mid-Atlantic Portfolio consists of seven seniors housing communities located in the greater Baltimore and Washington, D.C. areas. The seller, a joint venture between Morningside House Senior Living and Harrison Street Real Estate Capital, sold the portfolio for roughly $354,000 per unit. HCP has selected Chicago-based Senior Lifestyle Corp. to operate the assets. The portfolio included: — Morningside House of Ellicott City in Ellicott City, Md. — Morningside House of Friendship in Hanover, Md. — Morningside House of Laurel in Laurel, Md. — Morningside House of Satyr Hill in Parkville, Md. — Morningside House of Leesburg in Leesburg, Va. — Morningside House of Saint Charles in Waldorf, Md. and — Poet’s Walk Memory Care in Fredericksburg, Va. Lisa Widmier and Matthew Whitlock led CBRE Capital Markets’ National Senior Housing team in representing the joint venture in the sale. “This transaction had multiple moving parts, including a new operator — Senior Lifestyle — partnering with a …
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD. — Ibdar Bank, a Bahrain-based wholesale Islamic investment bank, has purchased a 326-unit apartment community in Montgomery County for $78 million. Built in 2001, the garden-style property is situated roughly 25 miles from downtown Washington, D.C. Ibdar Bank will renovate the asset, which is expected to yield a more than 9 percent return on investment. The seller and the name of the property were not disclosed.
SILVER SPRING, MD. — Capital One has provided a $50.5 million loan to repay an existing construction loan on Fenwick Apartments, a Class A, six-story apartment community in Silver Spring, a little over six miles north of Washington, D.C. Capital One provided the three-year, floating-rate loan to the borrower, Insight Property Group. The loan’s initial term is interest-only. Two optional one-year extensions have amortization on a 30-year schedule utilizing a 3 percent interest rate. Built in 2014, Fenwick Apartments consists of 310 units, including 39 affordable units, and is located within walking distance to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s Silver Spring station. Community amenities include a pool deck with cabanas, clubroom, billiards, TV gaming area and an outdoor living room with a fire pit. The community was 94 percent occupied as of July.
Historically overlooked along the East Coast, Millennial migration has symbolized the dawn of a new day in Charm City. The recent influx of a budding dynamic workforce to Baltimore’s urban core neighborhoods has driven the fourth largest increase in college-educated young professionals amongst metro areas nationwide. These young professionals followed substantial job migration resulting in a paradigm shift from Washington, D.C., and other major Mid-Atlantic employment centers. Baltimore’s labor market has demonstrated year-over-year gains since 2010. As of March 2016, Baltimore metro-area non-farm employment totaled 1.4 million, up 2.6 percent over the past year, as compared to 2 percent growth nationally over the same period, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The professional and business services sector contributed the largest gains since March 2015, adding 13,500 jobs to Baltimore’s work force, representing a growth rate of 6 percent over the prior year. The recent surge in employment has driven sustained demand for rental housing, pushing vacancy rates to historic lows and placing upward pressure on rents. Despite its rapid ascension, Baltimore continues to benefit from its proximity to other East Coast cities, which have experienced economic expansion as well, with Baltimore remaining the most affordable of …