Butler and St. John of CBRE/New England complete $22.5 million sale of The Bixby

 

 

Haverhill, MA CBRE/New England’s Capital Markets team completed the $22.5 million sale of The Bixby, a 128-unit high-rise apartment community. CBRE/NE multi-housing experts Simon Butler and Biria St. John exclusively represented the seller, a partner between an affiliate of Boston Andes Capital, LLC and William Braucher, and procured the buyer, Blackfin Real Estate Investors of Arlington, VA in a joint venture with True North Management Group out of White Plains, NY.

“We are pleased to have facilitated the sale of The Bixby on behalf of our client who had owned the community since July 2011 and successfully executed their vision for the community,” said Butler. “The sale marked the successful conclusion to an investment that yielded strong results for the seller, while at the same time offering the buyer strong yields on a going-forward basis through execution of their value-add strategy.”

“We are very excited to acquire our first asset in the Boston metro under our new platform,” said Doug Root, co-founder and managing partner at Blackfin Real Estate Investors. “Boston is a tough market to break into and we hope that this is first of many assets that we will own in the market.”

Andrew Buchanan, a co-founder of Blackfin Real Estate Investors with Doug Root and managing partner, said, “We love the gentrification story in downtown Haverhill and the asset is a perfect fit with our strategy of acquiring and re-positioning well-located, value-add, rental housing in markets that we expect to outperform long term. Blackfin Real Estate Investors pursues a wide variety of multifamily investments but prefers value add opportunities where it can leverage its operational and in-house construction management expertise.”

This is the first joint venture investment between Blackfin Real Estate Investors and True North Management Group. 

The groups have been actively pursuing opportunities together, but have struggled to meet the strong pricing on previous opportunities that they have looked at in the market. Fung Lin, a principal at True North Management Group, said, “We are excited about this transaction with Blackfin Real Estate Investors and hope that it will help us expand our apartment portfolio in the region.”

The Bixby consists of one 12-story apartment building (with an elevator) originally built in the 1920s and converted to apartments in 1988, along with a two-story garage. Between 2016 and 2017 Boston Andes Capital, LLC spent $4 million on building improvements and apartment upgrades, which have enhanced the overall appeal of the community. Building improvements include new central boilers and central chiller, upgraded lobby, leasing office and entryways, converted commercial space into eight new units. In addition, Boston Andes Capital added brand new community amenities, such as a resident lounge with entertainment kitchen, smart TVs, pool and shuffle board tables, outdoor riverfront deck, game room, fitness center and landscaped courtyard. The unit mix is comprised of 15 studios, 75 one-bedroom apartments and 38 two-bedroom apartments with an average unit size of 875 s/f. The community offers access to the adjacent Haverhill MBTA Commuter Rail Station, downtown and numerous different employment centers along I-93, I-95 and I-495.

Boston Andes Capital, LLC is a real estate investment, consulting, and development firm focused on Boston, Massachusetts; Baltimore, Maryland; Richmond, Virginia; and certain Latin American countries including Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico. Over the past several years BAC has acquired or participated in the development of over twenty real estate projects including residential, life science, industrial and office uses.

Blackfin Real Estate Investors is focused on acquiring and repositioning multifamily properties from the Carolinas to Boston. Its experience within real estate spans the spectrum of real estate investment management, capital renovations, property operations, finance and accounting. Founders Andy Buchanan and Doug Root have more than 30 years of combined experience working for institutional quality apartment acquisition, development, and management companies. Both are experienced real estate and investment management professionals. They have worked with some of the most respected names in real estate, development and investment management throughout the country and they plan to continue working with this network as they grow their portfolio.

CB Richard Ellis – N.E. Partners, LP, a joint venture with CBRE Group, Inc. has offices in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maine and New Hampshire. CBRE Group, Inc., a Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company headquartered in Los Angeles, is the world’s largest commercial real estate services and investment firm (based on 2016 revenue). The company has more than 75,000 employees (excluding affiliates), and serves real estate investors and occupiers through approximately 450 offices (excluding affiliates) worldwide. CBRE offers a broad range of integrated services, including facilities, transaction and project management; property management; investment management; appraisal and valuation; property leasing; strategic consulting; property sales; mortgage services and development services.