AvalonBay Continues Strategy with $82M Apartment Project

BETHESDA, MD-Alexandria, VA-based apartment REIT AvalonBay Communities continues to move forward with its core market penetration strategy with the recent start of construction on the $82.3 million Avalon at Grosvenor Station apartment community. The hefty price tag includes all necessary land acquisitions, as well as construction costs. The 499-unit, 10-building complex also fulfills the company’s “smart growth” goal of creating more residential communities in close proximity to mass transit corridors. This newest property is located adjacent to the Washington Metro’s Grosvenor station, and construction completion is anticipated for the fourth quarter of 2004.

The ten structures will be mid-rise buildings of four or five stories, and there will be four-story parking garages linked by bridges to nine of the structures. The tenth building will offer a single-level subterranean parking facility.With its First Quarter 2002 earnings release scheduled for issue after the closing of the market on April 30, AvalonBay officials were unavailable for comment on the project at press time. However, company chairman and CEO Bryce Blair comments on AvalonBay’s future following the Fourth Quarter 2001 release. “The redeployment of the disposition proceeds into our core, high barrier-to-entry markets where we have a strong competitive advantage is a clear example of one of the ways in which we pursue our market penetration strategy,” he explains.