Stellar Debuts in DC Market with Acquisition of 1,119-Unit Berkshire Towers

SILVER SPRING, MD-Ownership of the Berkshire Towers apartment community has changed hands in a deal between seller Berkshire Realty Holdings LP and buyer Stellar Management. Ackman-Ziff Real Estate Group helped arrange the $146 million financing package in the form of a five-year interim loan for the 1,119-unit multifamily property; $110 million in first mortgage debt and $36 million in joint venture equity.

The transaction was hardly a one-man show. “It was a group effort between Stellar, Ackman-Ziff, our attorneys Robert Ivanhoe and Stephen Rabinowitz of Greenberg Traurig, the lenders, and our financial partners,” Stellar’s Robert Rosania says in a comment to GlobeSt.com.

Located off the Capital Beltway at 11215 Oak Leaf Dr., Berkshire Towers is a 19-story high-rise structure situated on a 26-acre parcel of land. The property, which began to rise from the ground in 1965 and underwent a complete remodeling in 1997, boasts a total building area of more than one million sf. It has been seven years since Berkshire Towers was on the market. Berkshire Realty Holdings acquired the building in 1996 for $53 million from Turtle Creek Associates, which had held the property in its real estate portfolio since 1979.