A downtown apartment building, the 261-unit The Wescott, has sold for $67 million, in one of the city’s largest residential sales of the year.
An affiliate of investment-management firm Nuveen sold the building, at 1450 Washington Blvd., to an undisclosed New Jersey investment group, according to commercial real estate firm CBRE Group, which represented the sellers. The sale price compared with a building appraisal last year of approximately $62 million, according to the online property database Vision Appraisal.
“Stamford continues to attract significant interest given the 24/7 live, work, play lifestyle that is also pedestrian and transit centric,” Dunne said in a statement. “This is highly appealing to the new residents that continue to move to our market as well as the employers that continue to expand.”
Built in 1986, The Wescott has undergone significant interior and exterior renovations in the past five years. Most apartments have been remodeled with new kitchens featuring granite counters and new cabinets and stainless-steel appliances, as well as new baths, lighting and fixtures.
The Wescott also includes 8,500 square feet of vacant commercial space, which was formerly occupied by medical tenants.
Stamford economic development director Thomas Madden described the sale price as “reflective of the per-unit price that the Stamford market has been commanding.”
But some realtors said the sale should not be seen as a definitive indicator of the state of the city’s residential sector.
“I don’t think the sale of The Wescott has any correlation to the Stamford apartment market,” said Tammy Felenstein, Stamford-based executive director of sales for Halstead Real Estate. “Constructing residential buildings and the ongoing property maintenance of those buildings are very different. Regardless of who owns the buildings, the occupancy rates in all the downtown buildings range from 93 percent to 98 percent. Those percentages say more about the Stamford rental market.”
Several other apartment buildings in the city have sold for eight figures in the past year.
In September, the 82-unit Bedford Hall apartment complex, at 545 Bedford St., was sold for $24.5 million.
In January, the approximately 200-unit 66 Summer Street building sold for $67.5 million, while the 125-unit Parallel 41 complex, at 1340 Washington Blvd., went for $33.35 million.
Last December, in the city’s largest real estate sale of the past decade, five apartment buildings in the Harbor Point complex in the South End were sold by Stamford developer Building and Land Technology for a total of nearly $400 million to Manhattan-based Gaia Real Estate.
Amid the sales, the city’s housing stock continues to grow. Among the new projects, BLT’s latest Harbor Point building, the 392-unit NV, opened last month at 100 Commons Park North. Less than a couple of miles away in the downtown, the 325-unit Atlantic Station, at the corner of Atlantic Street and Tresser Boulevard, and the 209-unit Vela on the Park, at the intersection of West Park Place and Washington Boulevard, are both scheduled to debut in the new year.
While millennial-aged residents comprise a huge block of tenants in apartments in the downtown and South End, those areas are increasingly attracting other groups such as senior citizens.
“At the Beacon (on Harbor Point Road), that’s the first building where we saw a really significant empty-nester population,” said BLT Chief Operating Officer Ted Ferrarone. “We’re seeing a lot of people who wouldn’t typically have lived in apartments who say, ‘We really like the product, we like the neighborhood.’ They’re looking for bigger units, with slightly different amenities.”
About CBRE Group, Inc.
CBRE Group, Inc. (NYSE:CBRE), 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 2018 revenue). The company has more than 90,000 employees (excluding affiliates), and serves real estate investors and occupiers through approximately 480 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. Please visit our website at www.cbre.com.
CBRE Group, Inc. (NYSE:CBRE), 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 2018 revenue). The company has more than 90,000 employees (excluding affiliates), and serves real estate investors and occupiers through approximately 480 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. Please visit our website at www.cbre.com.
