KANSAS CITY, MO - Cohen-Esrey Apartment Investors, a unit of Overland Park-based Cohen-Esrey, LLC, has acquired five market-rate apartment properties totaling 1,490-units in Olathe, KS, Dallas, TX, Ft. Worth, TX, Marietta, GA and North Port, FL.
The firm also sold a property in Erie, PA. Last fall, Cohen-Esrey acquired The Edge Apartments at 12251 South Strang Line Road in Olathe, and has renamed the 352-unit property, Jefferson on the Lake. The firm closed on Lofton Place, a 258-unit property in Ft. Worth in April 2019, as well as the 372-unit South Pointe Apartments in Dallas. Other acquisitions include the 196-unit Hamptons at East Cobb in the Atlanta suburb of Marietta, and the 312-unit Lakes at North Port, in the Sarasota, FL, suburb of North Port.
These five acquisitions bring the owned-portfolio of Cohen-Esrey Apartment Investors to 5,045-units in 17 properties. Other markets include San Antonio, Memphis, Oklahoma City, Lincoln, NE, Columbus, OH and Atlanta, GA. In Erie, PA, Cohen-Esrey sold the Boston Store Apartments, a 125-unit historic downtown building it acquired in 2012. The total value of the six transactions exceeds $184 million. The firm has another 350-unit property under contract with an expected closing in October 2019. Counting properties sold in recent years, Cohen-Esrey has acquired 6,252-units at a total cost of more than $550 million.
Cohen-Esrey has been accelerating its apartment acquisition efforts since 2016, targeting larger metropolitan areas with strong job and population growth. Assets have been constructed from the mid-1980s to 2010 and generally require some level of physical improvements and repositioning. Often, amenities are enhanced along with unit interiors including kitchens, flooring and bathrooms.
Ryan Huffman is the managing director for Cohen-Esrey Apartment Investors and said, "Demographic trends continue to drive demand for apartments across the country. As Baby Boomers retire, many are moving into apartments. And Millennials are choosing to live in apartments longer than previous generations. These two massive age cohorts are creating significant pressure on rental housing stock and the industry has been unable to keep pace with the demand."