MIG Continues Multifamily Buying Spree

By: Paul Dionne | Vizzda

Less than two months after his brother, David Merage of Consolidated Investment Group, closed on the distressed Block 1949 Apartments in Tempe, Greg Merage of MIG Real Estate has acquired Symphony Apartments in Chandler for $34.164m or more than $150k per unit. This is the second major multifamily acquisition by MIG this year following the $41.85m purchase of the Quadrangles in April and the fourth major acquisition since the start of 2013, totaling $126.564m for 1,048 apartment units and a 90k SF office building. MIG put $10.65m down and secured an additional $24.85m in funding through a Fannie Mae loan originated by CBRE Multifamily Capital.

The 234-unit apartment complex is comprised of fifteen 2 and 3-story buildings totaling 246,611 net rentable square feet completed in 1998 on a 15.30 gross acre site featuring two resort-style pools. The units are a mix of one, two and three bedrooms with seven floor plans, detailed in the table below:

Unit	Number	Beds	Baths	SF
Handel	48	1	1	729
Mozart	33	2	1	1240
Mahler	55	2	2	1069
Schubert	22	2	1	1142
Beethoven	11	2	1	915
Bach	32	2	2	1022
Chopin	33	3	2	1262

The complex was converted to condominiums in 2005 under an agreement that stipulates to slightly smaller unit sizes, resulting in a net rentable square foot total of 237,476 for the project. The units are individually metered for electricity. 

The seller was Hartford Investment Management Company, who had previously acquired the property in 2010 when then-owner Graystar defaulted on a purchase money note secured by the property and transferred ownership to Hartford, deed-in-lieu. The previous arms-length sale of Symphony was in January of 2007, when the Greystar bought the complex for less than it's begin acquired for now: $34.164m or $146,000 per unit with $7.864m down and the $26.3m new debt which caused Greystar to give up Symphony less than five years later.

To Contact the Author:

Paul Dionne - pdionne@vizzda.com