Archstone Purchases Seattle, Silicon Valley Apartment Communities for $115M

February 23, 2012
By Nicholas Ziegler, News Editor

Archstone Kirkland at Carillon Point near Seattle

Taking a 131-unit apartment complex off the hands of an affiliate of Continential Properties L.L.C., Archstone has added another Seattle-area multi-family property to its roster. Despite the relatively small number of units in the development, Archstone spent approximately $47.5 million on the Kirkland, Wash., complex.

“We own apartment communities in some of the very best locations in the Seattle metropolitan area,” R. Scot Sellers, Archstone’s CEO, said. “Archstone Kirkland at Carillon Point is an excellent addition to the 11 apartment communities and 3,347 units we own and operate nearby.”

Additionally, in a separate transaction, an Archstone-sponsored partnership acquired Parkside Apartment Homes, a 192-unit community in the heart of Silicon Valley, for approximately $63.2 million. The community will be renamed Archstone Sunnyvale.

A report by Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Services Inc. forecasts significant growth in the apartment sector for the Seattle area, mostly driven by the success of the tech industry. Improved job creation and continued housing market concerns will sustain a wide renter pool, driving down vacancy 60 basis points to 4 percent this year, the firm noted. In 2011, vacancy dropped 130 basis points.

“Improved access to loans, combined with a broad rental market upswing, will draw buyers to Puget Sound assets,” the report said. The apartment vacancy rate, which peaked at nearly 6 percent in 2010, is forecasted to average just more than 4 percent in 2012.

The Seattle aparment community will be renamed Archstone Kirkland at Carillon Point, and is located just six miles from Microsoft’s Redmond, Wash., campus. The Silicon Valley purchase is located less than five miles from the corporate campuses of Apple Inc., Google and Cisco.

CBRE Group Inc. represented the seller and members of CBRE’s multi-family financing team arranged the property’s financing on the Kirkland transaction. Marcus & Millichap brokered the California deal.