Berkshire Income to Sell Suburban D.C. Apartments in $53M Deal

Taking another step in its mission of creating value through property management and repositioning, Berkshire Income Realty Inc. has entered into an agreement to sell Westchester West Apartments in Silver Spring, Md., in a transaction valued at approximately $53.4 million. The deal includes the buyer’s assumption of a $37.5 million mortgage debt on the 345-unit apartment community. Berkshire acquired the Westchester West from an affiliate three years ago for $39.3 million. Located at 3212 Hewitt Ave., about 25 miles from Washington, D.C., Westchester West is a garden-style multifamily complex that was developed between 1970 and 1972. The area’s apartment market is marked by high demand. At midyear, the vacancy rate for Class B garden-style properties in the suburban Maryland area just outside of Washington, D.C., was 3.1 percent. Westchester West’s impending sale at approximately $154,800 per-unit is in line with recent sales of comparable properties in Silver Spring. In May, the nearly four-decade-old Avery Apartments fetched $155,100 per-unit. CB Richard Ellis’ Multi-Housing Group orchestrated the disposition of Westchester West on behalf of Berkshire. The non-recourse debt on the property is scheduled to mature March 1, 2015 and, as of mid-June of this year, consisted of a First Note unpaid balance of $28.9 million with a 5.03 percent fixed interest rate, and a Second Note unpaid balance of $7.9 million with a fixed rate of 5.89 percent. Headquartered in Boston, Berkshire is a REIT that acquires, rehabilitates and operates multifamily properties. The company presently owns interests in 25 apartment communities in the Baltimore/Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, Virginia, Texas, the Chicago area, Atlanta, Charlotte, N.C., Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., and Sherwood, Ore.