A Fort Collins apartment community that never hit the market achieved what is believed to be a record price per unit.
Ft. Collins Multifamily III DST, an affiliate of the Inland Real Estate Group of Companies Inc., paid $46.1 million, or $209,545 per unit, for The Preserve at the Meadows, which is located near the new Foothills Mall.
Jake Hallauer
“To my knowledge, the price per unit on the sale of The Preserve at the Meadows is a high-water mark for market-rate, suburban style apartments in Fort Collins,” said Jake Hallauer of Chrisland Real Estate Cos. “Recently, each subsequent sale of apartment communities in Fort Collins of a similar age, size and quality sets a new price-per-unit record. This clearly shows the strong demand for apartment investments in Fort Collins and the greater Northern Colorado region.”
The Preserve at the Meadows is a 220-unit community located at 350 Riva Ridge Drive in the Midtown area. It’s next to the MAX bus rapid-transit line and just west of South College Avenue, with frontage on Horsetooth Road.
Hallauer, who represented the seller with Chrisland’s Ryan Schaefer, said there was interest from a few parties right away.
“These groups are looking up and down the Front Range and in other states. It speaks to how strong Fort Collins is viewed as a tertiary market relative to Denver,” he said.
Generally, demand for apartment investments in the region is coming from investors with a long time horizon, according to Hallauer. “Those investors see Fort Collins and Northern Colorado as a very stable area to invest their capital with a lot of potential upside due to continued population and employment growth, and many barriers to entry for new development,” he said, citing increased construction costs, geographical and political barriers to entry, availability and cost of raw water for development, land costs and lengthy entitlement timelines in some municipalities.
“With those barriers to entry and a very vibrant, desirable area to live, many investors such as the buyer of The Preserve at the Meadows view the Northern Colorado area as a great opportunity to invest for the long term,” said Hallauer.
Completed in 2002, The Preserve offers “very livable and nice units” that feature 9-foot ceilings, along with common area amenities that include a clubhouse with a swimming pool, fitness center and business center/computer room, said Hallauer. There also is a Jacuzzi, and barbecue and volleyball areas.
The unit mix includes 68 one-bedroom, 134 two-bedroom and 18 three-bedroom apartments.
The location was “very attractive to the buyer because of the proximity to the Foothills Mall redevelopment and the energy that’s going on in Midtown,” said Hallauer.
The Preserve at the Meadows was sold by its developers, which included an affiliate of Bailey Co. The selling entities included The Preserve at the Meadows Ltd., SC Residential LLC and multiple others.
Hallauer said it was a good time to sell the property because of investor demand, little to no inventory actively on the market, historically low cap rates and low interest rates.
Inland Jeff Slinde and Bert Slinde of Slinde Realty were the buyer’s consultants on the transaction.
Various Inland Group affiliates own several multifamily properties in Colorado, including the Pinecone and Miramont apartments in Fort Collins, Lake Vista and Greens at Van de Water in Loveland, and Country Club West in Greeley.
