August 3, 2015

Oakwood, Mapletree branch out in Seattle by buying apartments

Courtesy Janis Miglavs [enlarge]

The 100 units in Hue at 717 Dexter Ave. N. will be operated as corporate housing.

As part of a joint venture with Oakwood Worldwide of Los Angeles, Mapletree Group of Singapore has acquired Hue, a 100-unit apartment building at 717 Dexter Ave. N. in South Lake Union, with plans to convert it to corporate housing.

Holland Partner Group of Vancouver constructed the building in 2012, and the seller is an entity related to Holland.

Oakwood issued a press release about the deal but would not disclose the sales price. The transaction had not been recorded by King County as of Friday afternoon.

The building will be renamed Oakwood Seattle South Lake Union and provide housing for corporate employees and travelers. In the release, Oakwood calls itself a “global leader in corporate housing and serviced apartment solutions.”

“Seattle is such a vibrant city with tremendous job growth, driving increased demand for corporate housing from our global clients,” Scott McDonald, senior vice president at Oakwood, said in the press release. “South Lake Union is the perfect location for expansion, allowing us to strengthen our presence in the marketplace and offer our clients increased choice and flexibility.”

The purchase is the fifth that Oakwood and Mapletree have done together, but their first in the Pacific Northwest. The joint venture has properties in Dallas, Silicon Valley and Raleigh, North Carolina. The two firms say their goal is to acquire more than 100 properties around the world in the next five years.

Oakwood said it has a presence in all 50 U.S. states and 85 countries. It provides furnished housing for companies, businesses and leisure travelers, as well as insurance clients.

Mapletree is a development, investment and capital management firm. It has office, logistics, industrial, housing and retail properties worth more than $20 billion in U.S. dollars.