The company's business plan is to acquire apartment communities in good locations and then execute a market repositioning with extensive capital improvements and institutional-quality property management resulting in increased rents, reduced expenses, and significant added resale value. Initially, Bascom Northwest Ventures will focus on 50-plus unit communities in the Bay Area, Portland and Seattle.

Bascom founder Jerry Fink says continued job losses, overbuilding, and home purchases have combined to produce significant deterioration in the cash flow for apartments in these regions, despite them all being grea long-term markets and many with high barriers to entry. As a result, he believes the timing is right to invest in value added opportunities in the Bay Area and the Pacific Northwest.

"Apartment rents have dropped to levels not seen since 1998 in the Silicon Valley and are continuing to decline as additional new units are added to an already decimated submarket with declining demand," says Wirtz. "Portland and Seattle are faring no better; it is not uncommon to see owner's operating at 20% or more economic vacancy and offering several months free rent.

"With several large institutions and REITs selling, and increasing interest rates, coupled with nervousness on the part of buyers, we expect to see further declines in sales prices. The sale of Central Crest represents the first significant apartment community to sell in Fremont for less than $100,000 per unit in the last five years."

Formed in 1996, the Bascom Group has been an active buyer of multifamily throughout Southern California, Central Valley, and Hawaii. Acquisitions have totaled over 11,000 units to date. Bascom recently purchased American Office Centers out of bankruptcy and formed Premier Business Centers, which has become the largest privately held executive suite operator on the West Coast.