MASON CITY, IA - Atlanta-headquartered ARA, the largest privately held, full-service investment advisory brokerage firm in the nation focusing exclusively on the multihousing industry, is pleased to announce the sale of Gracious Estates Manufactured Home Community in Mason City, Iowa.
ARA National Manufactured Housing Group’s Andrew Shih and Brian Vita (based in Austin, TX) and Todd Fletcher (based in Denver, CO), represented the seller, Brenton Communities, a mid-sized portfolio owner of manufactured home communities based in Minneapolis, MN. The property was sold to a small, private owner and operator out of California.
“Through a broad, national marketing effort we were able to generate a number of offers on the park,” said Fletcher. “Only through our exhaustive approach were we able to find an under-the-radar, out-of-state buyer coming out of a 1031 exchange.”
Shih added, “In order to get this particular buyer to the table we co-brokered the sale as it was clearly in the best interest of our client and illustrates the long term vision our group has for this business.”
“Gracious Estates is a great opportunity for this buyer to take advantage of the attractive financing currently available through the CMBS market while still having some vacancy upside and expansion land to improve returns going forward,” said Vita.
Constructed in the 1970’s, Gracious Estates is a well maintained community with public utilities situated in Mason City, Iowa. In addition to the community, the sale included a small portfolio of manufactured home loans and an adjacent parcel of land for future expansion. The CMBS loan was originated by CIII through Andy Margolis of Draper & Kramer.
Gracious Estates is conveniently located just off Interstate 35, which is the main thoroughfare between Minneapolis, MN to the North and Des Moines, IA to the South. Mason City’s major employers include Mercy Health Center, the largest employer in the city and the Armour Eckrich meat processing plant, both located less than a mile from the community. The residents of Gracious Estates also enjoy close proximity to some of the area’s best retail and entertainment destinations including Walmart, Target, Menards, Mills Fleet Farm and the North Iowa Events Center and Ice Arena.
To schedule an interview with an ARA executive regarding this transaction or for more information about ARA, nationally please contact Lisa Robinson at lrobinson@ARAusa.com, 404.990.4900 or Amy Morris at amorris@ARAusa.com, 404.990.4902; locally, Allison Blount at ablount@arausa.com, 512.637.1229.
About ARA
Atlanta-headquartered ARA is the largest privately held, full-service investment advisory firm in the nation that focuses exclusively on the brokerage, financing and capital sourcing of multihousing properties including conventional, affordable, distressed assets, notes sales, seniors, student & manufactured housing and multihousing land. ARA is comprised of the country’s top investment professionals who leverage a unique and fully integrated cooperative business platform of shared information, relationships and technology driven solutions. ARA’s unified enterprise approach ensures that clients are delivered the broadest asset exposure, effective matching of buyers and sellers, and the shortest transaction timeframes in the industry. The combination of resources, unparalleled market expertise and nationwide presence in the multihousing marketplace has resulted in an annual production volume of more than $10.2 billion in real estate transactions in 2013. For detailed information on ARA’s extensive multihousing investment services, visit www.arausa.com.