BETHESDA, MD - Urban Investment Partners (UIP) and Criterion Holdings have acquired two Maryland apartment communities with a total of 385 units for $39,340,000. An affiliate of New York City-based Starr International Company provided equity and is a limited partner in the new ownership group. The seller, represented by CBRE Mid-Atlantic Multifamily Investment Sales Team, was a partnership between Boston-based Intercontinental Real Estate and Sawyer Realty Holdings.
Laurel Pines, located at 14601 Bowie Road, sold for $27 million. Most of its 235 garden apartments were built in 1962; 31 units were added in 2010. It is situated just four miles from Fort George G. Meade, Maryland’s largest employer, with some 57,000 employees on more than 5,400 acres. Fort Meade is expected to add more than 20,000 new jobs due to the growth of Federal cyber-security programs.
Country Club Apartments, which traded for $12,340,000, is located at 7491 East Furnace Branch Road in the heart of Glen Burnie. Also built in 1962, this garden apartment community has 150 well-maintained homes. The community is just two miles from Baltimore-Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport, which employs nearly 10,000 people, eight miles from downtown Baltimore, and nine miles from Fort Meade.
Baltimore-based Criterion Holdings, LLC is the real estate holding company of James Riordan, formerly of Lubert-Adler Partners of Philadelphia. UIP started working with Riordan when he was with Lubert-Adler, and continued the relationship after Riordan left that company in 2012. This is the first completed transaction to result from that partnership.
“Jamie and I have become great friends over the last few years,” said Steve Schwat, Principal, UIP. “That relationship has grown out of our similar instincts and understanding of value-add real estate as well as shared interests such as antique cars.”
UIP Property Management Inc. (UIPPM) will manage the day-to-day operations at both properties, while UIP Asset Management will oversee modest improvements and the overall investment strategy at both locations. Jennie Hawkins, VP of Operations at UIPPM, oversaw both apartment communities at Sawyer before joining UIPPM in August. She now oversees all operations for UIPPM and manages a staff of approximately 45.