Setting a record price for its market, Apartment Realty Advisors (ARA) announced the sale on May 17 of The Apartments at Meadowmont, a 258-unit Class A, master-planned community located in Chapel Hill, N.C., to Bell Partners for $37 million or $143,411 a unit—the highest per-unit price ever achieved in the Chapel Hill market. The community was 96 percent occupied at the time of the sale.
ARA’s Charlotte, N.C.-based Principals Dean Smith and Blake Okland represented Charlotte-based Crosland in the sales transaction. Crosland constructed and operated the luxury, garden-style community since its development in 2001 after completing a stringent eight-year, $1 million-plus zoning, entitlement and permitting process.
“The Chapel Hill market is one of the highest barrier-to-entry markets in the Southeast,” Smith says. He says that only 827 units have been added to the market since 2000, largely due to the local planning department’s “desire to fiercely protect the college town’s charm and infrastructure.”
Smith adds, “There’s a flight to quality occurring with a lot of capital chasing very few deals. The ‘Triangle’ market, comprising Chapel Hill, Raleigh and Durham, has effectively created a hedge for itself with its diverse and stable employment base including UNC Hospitals, Duke Medical Center, three major universities, state government offices and the world renowned Research Triangle Park, all of which have buffered it from the market’s cycles, preserving values and making the market a top-tier target for investors.”
Bell Partners, much like Crosland, will position the asset as a portfolio stabilizer because of its solid historical NOI performance. Since its delivery to the market 10 years ago, the property has never had a rollback year.