Originally published: Daily Journal of Commerce

The Koi Apartments, at 1139 N.W. Market St., sold this week for a little over $55.4 million, according to King County records.

The seller was HLI Koi LLC, a REIT managed by CBRE, which acquired the property in 2014 for $57 million. That represents a small but not terrible loss.

The buyer was TAF Ballard LLC, which is associated with Timberlane Partners. Public records indicate a $33.5 million loan from Connecticut General Life Insurance. Timberlane says its partner in the deal is Stars REI.

Brokers on both sides of the deal were David Young, Corey Marx, Chris Ross, Jordan Louie and Michael Lyford at JLL. The deal was worth about $431 per square foot, including about 2,228 square feet of retail. Tenants for that are unknown; it may have been converted to other uses.

Alliance Residential developed the six-story, 166-unit project circa 2013, then sold its two buildings when still quite new. The complex includes 155 parking stalls. NK Architects designed the project, which replaced several old houses, with Exxel Pacific as the builder.

The new owners say that Koi’s apartments are now about 96% leased. Jon Hallgrimson at Timberlane said in a statement, “We are thrilled to add another Ballard asset to our acquisition fund.”

Koi is a block east of the Safeway on Market, and immediately east of the vacant former Firestone, itself bound for redevelopment with apartments.

Timberlane, a regular in our market, likes that part of Ballard. Back in December, nearby, it bought the 132-unit Wilcox for about $45 million. (JLL was then also the broker.) That also sold at a loss.

Its partner then, too, was the privately held Stars REI, which has its headquarters in Chile. It invests primarily in the U.K. and United States. Its Joaquin Canessa said, “We’re excited to expand in Seattle, focusing on strengthening our Ballard portfolio with our latest residential acquisition.”