Joint venture invests in emerging Sun Belt city to reposition two aging apartment communities amidst local job growth boosted by film production and tech industry expansions
Newport Beach, Calif. and Albuquerque, N.M. April 7, 2021 – RanchHarbor, and Westgrove Partners, two real estate investment firms based in Newport Beach, Calif. and Los Angeles respectively, today announced their joint venture (JV) partnership in the acquisition of a two-property multifamily portfolio in Albuquerque, N.M. The assets, Candlewood Village and Candelaria Heights, which have since been rebranded to The Grove and The Heights at Tramway, together include 79 garden style apartments on approximately 3.1 total acres. The JV purchased the portfolio, off-market, substantially below replacement cost and at an attractive basis.
“Albuquerque is a stable apartment market in need of improved housing options as more major entertainment and technology-based corporations such as Netflix and NBCUniversal target the region for expansion,” said John Meek, managing principal at RanchHarbor. “RanchHarbor is pleased to partner with Westgrove Partners who secured this investment through its strong broker network. The opportunity allows our firm to execute another value-add business plan and provide strong cash yield to our investors.”
The business plan for the multifamily portfolio is to implement institutional-grade property management and perform interior and exterior renovations to reposition the assets. Interior improvements include painting, installing new flooring and updating lighting, cabinets and fixtures in kitchens and bathrooms. Exterior enhancements include new paint and improvements to the building’s façade, landscaping and lighting in addition to clubhouse and common area amenity renovations.
The two properties are well-located within Albuquerque’s Northeast Heights submarket, which currently has vacancies of around 3.5% according to CoStar. Proximate to Interstates 40 and 25, both The Grove and The Heights are easily accessible to the entire metro area.
The Grove is located at 12050 Candelaria Road NE. It was built in 1985 and consists of 59 units ranging from 650 to 950 square feet in eight buildings. The 2.1-acre property also includes 87 uncovered parking spaces and a common area with a pool.
The Heights is located at 3101 Lori Place NE. It was built in 1972 and consists of 20 units ranging from 807 to 1,100 square feet. The property is 0.8 acres and includes 20 covered and 10 uncovered parking spaces.
“The acquisition of The Grove and The Heights represents an opportunity to provide two quality communities within a historically strong and growing sub-market in Albuquerque,” said Christian Meier, co-founder and managing principal at Westgrove Partners. “We are long-term believers in the local economy and are actively looking to add to our portfolio of assets in the market.”
The Grove and The Heights investment brings Westgrove’s total portfolio in Albuquerque to 265 units across three separate apartment communities. The investment is RanchHarbor’s second acquisition in 2021.
RanchHarbor is currently executing a similar value-add business plan to reposition a 44-unit apartment community in Phoenix. The company continues to actively seek value-add and opportunistic general partner (GP) and limited partner (LP) commercial real estate investment opportunities in select western U.S. markets with targeted equity commitments between $2 million and $8 million.
ABOUT RANCHHARBOR
RanchHarbor is an integrated real estate investment firm based in Newport Beach, Calif., focused on investing in sub-institutional value-add opportunities. RanchHarbor offers joint venture equity and general partner co-invest equity, targeting commercial and multifamily real estate investments between $2 million and $15 million in select U.S. markets. The firm also provides sophisticated asset management, capital advisory and receivership services to institutional and private investors, asset owners and operators. Since its founding in 2020, RanchHarbor has closed on nine investments exceeding $100 million in total AUM across five states. For more information, visit ranchharbor.com. Follow the company on LinkedIn.
ABOUT WESTGROVE PARTNERS
Westgrove Partners (“Westgrove” or “WGP”) is a private real estate investment firm dedicated to multifamily acquisitions in the western U.S. With a value-add investment strategy WGP’s objective is to generate long-term capital appreciation and stable cash flow to its partners through careful investment selection and proactive management. WGP’s team has an extensive track record of successfully executing multifamily investment strategies, collectively contributing to the acquisition and management of over 25,000 units with a total capitalization of $2.5B across public and private investment platforms. Since its inception in 2017, WGP has acquired properties across the southwest US totaling $100 million in total capitalization with a diverse set of investors. Visit westgrovepartners.com for more information.