Landmark Apartments, a housing complex on Route 1 that services University of Maryland students, sold for $132.15 million — about $7,000 more than the per-unit price the University View sold for last year.
Sh Landmark College Park Venture, Landmark’s previous owner, sold the building to an affiliate of Harrison Street Real Estate Capital, a Chicago-based real estate firm, according to documents filed with the Maryland Department of Assessment and Taxation on July 10.
The Landmark deal comes amid a slew of apartment building sales in the area. Aside from the View and Landmark, Terrapin Row — a multi-building student housing complex on Hartwick and Knox roads — sold to the Dallas-based Pinnacle Campus Living in 2017.
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“There’s a real market — a very hot market — right now, for student housing,” College Park Mayor Patrick Wojahn said. “There is a lot of other interest in student housing in College Park, and several student housing developments currently in the pipeline. There’s still a huge need for it and a huge demand for it.”
Landmark’s 283-unit building cost HSRE nearly $467,000 per unit, according to the documents. The company declined to comment or confirm that its affiliate bought the building.
Last year, CBRE, the company which represented the View’s sellers, announced in a press release that the building sold for $235 million, calling it the largest ever single-asset student trade in the United States.
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However, documents filed with MDAT reveal that the View actually sold for around $2.4 million less than CBRE claimed. CBRE did not respond to request for comment.
Even so, according to the documents, the View sold for a little less than $460,000 per unit. The previous owners of the apartment building made more from selling the complex than they would’ve made if they had continued to rent it out, said College Park’s economic development coordinator Ryan Chelton.
“Sounds like something very similar happened to the Landmark,” he said. “Sounds like they sold for a much higher rate than they thought they would receive any offers for. So they had to take them up on that offer.”
But in the grand scheme of things, Chelton said, students who live in Landmark will not notice much difference after the sale.
“Very similar to the View, I believe management will remain relatively the same,” he said.