By Seth Daniel
Just two years leasing up and occupying the new 190-unit Wellington Parkside apartments, a new company has purchased the property for $56 million – citing that Everett and the inner suburbs are headed in a positive direction.
Taurus Investment Holdings of Boston, which has traditionally invested in warehouse and industrial spaces, purchased the building last week for $56,007,000 from developer SMC Management. It results in a per unit buy of nearly $295,000 per unit.
Taurus indicated it would bring in new property management company, Dolben Company, to replace the current management, CP Management of Watertown.
“This is our first property n Everett,” said Nick Clark, vice president of acquisitions for Taurus. “Everett is a City that has a spotlight shining on it right now and for good reason. Boston is a place that people want to be in and there is a lot of investment right now because of that, both domestically and internationally. As the Boston story continues to be strong, we believe that spills over to the urban infill cities like Everett.”
That interest is relatively new for the company, which is 30 years old and was founded in Germany, but has had a Boston office for 20 years. However, it certainly seems like the appetite will continue, according to Clark.
“We have acquired more than 1,000 units of housing in Greater Boston,” he said. “We have the appetite and interest to do more than that.”
Peter Merrigan, CEO of Taurus, said the combination of many positive developments, not to ignore the Wynn Boston Harbor casino project, piqued the company’s interest.
“The combination of major area developments, including Assembly Row, Station Landing, and the future Wynn Casino, coupled with transportation infrastructure providing access to Boston were attractive attributes to the opportunity,” he said. “With modest property improvements, combined with Taurus management and marketing approach, we believe the property will be well positioned to take advantage of the positive changes to Everett and the overall dynamics of Boston’s urban-infill submarket.”
The company indicated it now has 1,230
Clark said they saw the value in the property quite some time ago and began talking with the developer while they were in the final stages of leasing up the development. Earlier this year, those talks accelerated, he said.
“During the first part of the year, we were in more dialog with the seller to get under contract and we did close on it last week,” he said this past Friday, April 21. “I think these urban infill cities – the Everetts, Somervilles, Medfords, and Reveres – are of interest to us. Here, there is great access to Wellington Station and Assembly Row…There was a story just recently about a hotel opening up on Revere Beach Parkway in Everett. There seems to be a lot of interest in these cities. In the future, we look for these neighborhoods and locations to change in a very positive way.”
The sale hearkens back to the Batch Yard development on Lower Broadway, which sold not long after its development and leasing activity ended.
There, the loft-style apartments opened in August 2014 by developers Post Road Development. In Oct 2015, the 328-unit luxury apartment complex sold for $144.9 million to Mesirow Financial of Chicago.
Taurus has historically, since coming to Boston in 1995, has concentrated its real estate portfolio on warehouse and office spaces. However, Clark said they entered the residential market in a big way a few years ago.
“The last few years, we’ve ventured into the apartment market,” he said. “There are a lot of renters by choice, more than in a long time. Homeownership dynamics have changed drastically and a lot of people want to rent like never before. The apartment market has been interesting to us and a lot of real estate investors.” The company doesn’t plan to make major changes to the property, but will bring Dolben Management into the building, which Clark said they have worked with very successfully once before.