GLASGOW – A New Jersey real estate investment firm recently bought the Spring Crossings Apartments for $56 million, marking the biggest multifamily sale of the year amid a hot New Castle County real estate market.
Capital Management, an owner-operator of multifamily complexes primarily in New Jersey, acquired the 362-unit complex formerly known as Spring Gardens from a joint venture led by New Jersey-based Concordia Properties in a Aug. 31 deal that wasn’t officially recorded until Oct. 20, according to county property records. The two firms didn’t have to go far to broker the deal – they work out of the same office complex in Lakewood, N.J.
Spring Crossings, located at 41 Winterhaven Drive behind the Four Seasons Shopping Center off Route 896, features a variety of units from studios to three-bedroom units with monthly rents ranging between $900 and $1,695. The sale price translates to a per unit cost of more than $154,000.
The acquisition of the nearly 393,000-square-foot complex marks the first investment by Capital Management in the First State. It also currently owns and operates six complexes in New Jersey and one in the Philadelphia area. Meanwhile, Concordia continues to own and operate the Christiana Pointe Apartments near Wilmington.
The joint venture led by Concordia reportedly invested $4 million on curb appeal fixes and unit finishes in a 2018 renovation.
The property was billed as a value-add acquisition, meaning the new owners can invest and upgrade to later see larger returns on higher-end units. More than $500,000 in HVAC and roof replacements are reportedly needed, according to a real estate listing from earlier this year by broker JLL. The 40% of units that were renovated by Concordia are reportedly seeing $200 premiums on their rent versus the original nearly 50-year-old units.
Neither Capital Management nor Concordia responded to a request for comment on the sale.
The Spring Gardens deal continues to push multifamily sales higher over the past year.
The previous annual high sale was set in July, when a New York firm acquired the 286-unit Edge at Greentree apartments in Claymont in a $51.5 million deal.
A Pennsylvania firm bought the 204-unit Carillon Woods apartments in Millsboro in a $43 million August deal. Also in October, a New Jersey firm bought the 234-unit Iron Hill Apartments near Newark for $32.1 million. In December 2020, a New Jersey firm acquired the 120-unit Garrison apartment complex in New Castle for $30.6 million.
