September 17, 2015

Greystar buys Velo and Ray

Photo courtesy of Mack Urban [enlarge]

Greystar paid $54.5 million for Ray, which is $386,525 per unit.

Greystar Real Estate Partners of Charleston, South Carolina, bought Velo and Ray, two apartment complexes in the Fremont/Wallingford area.

The sellers are an entity related to The Carlyle Group of Washington, D.C., and also Mack Urban of Los Angeles, according to public records and Mack Urban.

Greystar paid $54.5 million for Ray and $65.1 million for Velo.

Both were developed by Mack Urban, a West Coast real estate firm that owns, builds and manages urban infill projects. It has a Seattle office.

Ray opened this year at 3636 Stone Way N. The four-story, 137-unit complex has one large building and a smaller one, and 4,400 square feet of fully leased retail.

The per-unit price for Ray is $386,525 adjusted for the commercial space, according to Mike Scott of Dupre + Scott Apartment Advisors.

The 171-unit Velo opened in 2014 at 3635 Woodland Park Ave. N. Velo — French for bicycle — is designed around bikes because the site is near Burke Gilman trail and in a bike-friendly neighborhood.

Velo's per-unit price is $380,702, Scott said.

So far this year, Scott said, these are the highest per-unit prices for apartments north of the ship canal.

David Young, Corey Marx, Seth Heikkila and Matt Kemper of Jones Lang LaSalle brokered the sales.

Greystar is a real estate company offering investment management, development and property management for rental housing. Its website says it is the largest operator of apartments in the United States and manages about 400,000 units in 145 global markets.

The Carlyle Group is a global alternative asset manager with $193 billion of assets under management.