Originally Published: Puget Sound Business Journal

Timberlane Partners has opened the first phase of Sumner Mills, a 162-unit apartment complex recently completed in east Sumner.

The Seattle-based company says it’s already seeing strong lease-up activity.

“We’ve seen significant leasing momentum, with the initial phase of the community already achieving 30% occupancy,” Jorden Mellergaard, development manager at Timberlane, said in an email to the Business Journal. “We expect momentum to continue to grow through the spring and summer.”

The development began leasing to tenants in January.

Timberlane, which develops and acquires multifamily properties, sees a need for more housing in the South Sound market, Mellergaard said.

He noted there are more developments to come.

“We are working on permitting another 236 units in the South Hill neighborhood in Puyallup, which we expect to break ground on in 2025,” Mellergaard said.

Sumner Mills has nine garden-style buildings on a 5.7-acre site at 5816 162nd Ave. E. Units include studio, one- and two-bedroom layouts.

Twenty percent of the units will be made available to those who qualify for low- and moderate-income housing, according to a news release.

Casey + DeChant Architects designed the project, and Rush Cos. was the general contractor.

“I grew up in the house across the street from the site, so this is a very special project for me personally,” Timberlane Principal Dave Enslow said in the release.

Seattle-based Timberlane has 23 commercial real estate assets in the South Sound, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Southern California, Chicago and Texas.

In February it acquired the 166-unit Koi Apartments in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood in a joint venture with Stars REI for $55 million, which was an “an unbelievable deal,” Jake Leibsohn, a partner at Timberlane, told the Business Journal last month. That purchase came just weeks after the Timberlane and the same JV partner bought the Wilcox apartment building, also in Ballard, for 25% less than it traded for in 2018.