Originally published: bizjournals.com
One of the Pacific Northwest’s most active multifamily investors, Seattle-based Timberlane Partners, on Tuesday paid $173 million for the 532-unit Jackson Apartments that Vulcan Real Estate developed.
It was a joint venture buy with investment manager PCCP, completed through Timberlane Acquisition Fund II, the firm’s second closed-end private acquisition fund.
This is Timberlane’s largest acquisition in its 14 years. The company says the off-market purchase of the Amazon Fresh-anchored asset at 2401 S. Jackson St. continues its momentum to build a portfolio of “long-term hold properties that emphasize walkability, sustainability and connectivity.”
Jackson Apartments is six blocks from the future Judkins Park light rail station in the historically Black community.
Timberlane Principal Dave Enslow said in an interview that Giovanni Napoli and Philip Assouad’s team at Institutional Property Advisors quietly shopped the deal starting this summer and was “drawn out due to a lack of liquidity for big deals in the market.”
In addition to the Amazon Fresh, the development includes three small businesses: 23rd Ave Brewery, body care company QueenCare and BooSH, a plant shop.
The Business Journal this fall reported the 23rd Ave Brewery was closing its nano-brewery and taproom, but it continues to operate, according to Vulcan. The taproom was closed Tuesday and the owners could not be reached.
Earlier this year, Timberlane paid $138.5 million for the Trader Joe’s-anchored Queen Anne Collection.
Over the past two years, Timberlane has closed more than $625 million in acquisitions across 1,783 units, making it “a leading buyer in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain West regions,” the company says.
It was Vulcan’s second big disposition in as many months. The company earlier sold for $36 million a downtown Bellevue site. Buyer Holland Partner Group said it plans to start construction next year.
Lori Mason Curran, Vulcan Real Estate’s investment strategy director, told the Business Journal the sale of the seven-story Jackson Apartments is part of the company’s “ongoing business operations (to) regularly adjust our portfolio to best support our business needs.
“With the recent completion of $2.5B in projects, and to maintain our target real estate equity allocation, we need to re-position and lighten up our balance sheet,” Mason Curran wrote in an email.
She added Vulcan saw “very strong leasing” at apartment properties this summer and fall, “so the timing was right to offer Jackson Apartments for sale.”
In many ways it was a milestone project for Vulcan, Mason Curran said. The company was focused on the development of the South Lake Union district and surprised the market nine years ago when it paid $30.9 million for the 6-acre Red Apple-anchored Promenade 23 shopping center. She added the team held over 200 meetings with Central District residents and offered construction opportunities for women- and minority-owned businesses and celebrated Black culture through art.
Timberlane said $155 million of the purchase price was allocated to the residential portion, working out to $291,000 per unit, with $18 million for the retail, which totals 47,374 square feet.
The firm has acquired, developed and manages approximately $1.7 billion in real estate across 47 assets.
Timberlane is growing. It ended 2024 with 16 employees and will end 2025 with 24 employees and one new hire starting next year. The company added it expects to announce two to three more acquisitions in the first quarter.