Fayetteville apartment community near I-49 sold for $32.68 million

Little Rock investors bought a Fayetteville multifamily development for $32.68 million last week, the second eight-figure purchase of a Fayetteville apartment complex in the span of six days.

Multifamily management company BSR Trust is the new owner of the 360-unit Mountain Ranch apartment complex at 549 N. Coral Canyon Loop. The purchase price equals $90,782 per unit at the Class A development just south of the Wedington Drive/Interstate 49 exit.

The ownership deed was filed at the Washington County Courthouse on Thursday (March 2).

“Mountain Ranch is an outstanding community that we are thrilled to add to the BSR portfolio.” BSR Trust Chief Investment Officer Daniel Oberste said in a statement provided to the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal. “BSR has focused our acquisition growth outside the state of Arkansas in recent years. However, the economic growth story in Northwest Arkansas is impossible to ignore. Further, BSR’s corporate offices along with a large chunk of our operating personnel are based in Arkansas. As a result, it makes good business sense for BSR to expand our Arkansas presence at this time.

“This transaction, together with the other acquisitions and investments made in the past year, are indicators of the growth our company is experiencing and our strategy moving forward.”

BSR Trust declined to provide a cap rate or occupancy rate of Mountain Ranch at the time of the sale.

The previous owner of the development was Capital Assets Inc. of Tulsa, which acquired the 15-acre development in April 2013 for $22.59 million, or $71,803 per unit.

BSR Trust owns and manages 46 properties comprised of approximately 9,200 units in five states. The company was formed five years ago as the result of a merger between Bailey Properties of Little Rock, which traces its roots back to the formation of Bailey Corp. in 1956, and Summit Housing Partners of Montgomery, Ala.

Positioned just west of Interstate 49, less than two miles from the University of Arkansas campus, the Mountain Ranch development contains four, four-story buildings with elevators and interior corridors, as opposed to “garden-style” apartments. The buildings have stone and HardiPlank exteriors with dimensional roofing. The units range in size from single-room floor plans at 801 square feet up to three-bedroom plans at 1,265 square feet. Rental rates range from $714 to 1,285 per month.

The acquisition is the second multimillion-dollar deal for a Fayetteville apartment complex in the span of a week, perhaps signaling heightened interest in the local market for investors. On Feb. 24, a Denver-based company acquired the Hill Place Apartments, a student-apartment complex near the UA campus, for $53.3 million.