Trion Properties has entered the Southeast market with the acquisition of Crescent Commons, a 288-unit multifamily community in Fayetteville, North Carolina, for $35 million.
Earlier this year, the private equity real estate firm, which specializes in value-add multifamily, established an office in Miami and hired real estate veteran Marley Dominguez as director of acquisitions to run the new office and expand Trion’s reach in the Southeast.
“We’ve been evaluating opportunities throughout the Southeast for some time as we aim to strategically expand our portfolio in order to bring high-quality rental units to submarkets throughout the country experiencing strong demand,” said Max Sharkansky, managing partners at Trion. “Crescent Commons is an ideal well-performing yet unrenovated asset located in North Carolina, a state seeing some of the country’s highest rates of in-migration, which have been accelerated by the pandemic.”
According to Sharkansky, Fayetteville is well positioned to benefit from bringing these renovated apartments to the market, based on new multifamily deliveries within the past 12 months and only one community under construction.
Dominguez added that occupancy rates at the property and other comparable communities in the area average in the mid- to upper 90% range, seeing existing organic rent increases of as much as 20% as units turn over.
Constructed in two phases in 2002 and 2006, the garden-style community is comprised of 14 buildings with one-, two-, and three-bedroom units. Amenities include a clubhouse, a pool, a fitness center, two dog parks, 32 private garages, and a full car wash building.
According to Sharkansky, the acquisition will allow Trion to create significant value through implementing its proven renovation and operations strategies, which the firm has successfully executed in its Western markets, including California, Oregon, and Colorado. The value-add program will include renovations to the interiors of units, a fitness center expansion, a pool area enhancement, and the installation of more prominent and appealing signage. Trion’s team will assume day-to-day operations of the community through its vertically integrated property management platform.
The asset also includes potential for upside through a vacant 42-acre land parcel.
“We will evaluate the site for possible development of resident self-storage, an increasingly in-demand amenity, as well as an additional building of primarily one-bedroom units,” added Dominguez.
