Bascom Buys Nettleton From Harsch for $37M

SEATTLE-The Nettleton, a 351-unit high-rise apartment development here has changed hands for $37 million. The new owner is San Francisco-based Bascom Northwest Ventures, which has been buying up multifamily properties all over the region. The seller was Portland, OR-based Harsch Investment Realty, which had owned and managed the asset for 30 years.The Nettleton is located at the corner of 8th Avenue and Madison Street, two blocks east of Interstate 5, which divides Downtown from the First Hill and Capitol Hill neighborhoods. Nearby employers include Swedish Medical Center, Virginia Mason, Harborview Medical Centers and Seattle University. Constructed in 1951, the property consists of two 14-story apartment buildings with two fitness centers, a rooftop terrace, a library and an outdoor pool. The unit mix includes 14% studios (350 sf), 58% one-bedroom, one-bath units (571 sf), 26% 2-bedroom, one-bath units (763 sf) and 1% two-bedroom, two-bath units (1,130 sf). The property was 97% leased at closing.Kirk Taylor and Ann Blume of CB Richard Ellis in Seattle represented Harsch in the transaction, with assistance from Jon Hallgrimson in CBRE’s Seattle office. Bascom Northwest was represented in-house by managing director Brian Wirtz. David Kim, managing director of the parent company, the Bascom Group of Irvine, CA, will manage the operations and repositioning of the asset from the Irvine office. Seattle-based Pinnacle Management has been retained to manage the property. Bascom Northwest’s purchase price of $106,268 per unit gives the company room to execute a renovation and, at the end of the day, still have an asset that will compete effectively with newer and other renovated Downtown high-rise properties. Wirtz says there have only been a few Downtown apartment projects to trade hands in recent years, but those that have were new or renovated properties commanding upward of $200,000 per unit.Bascom Northwest has acquired over $140 million worth of value-add apartment properties so far this year in the Northern California, Oregon, Washington and Utah Markets and plans to spend an additional $160 million on those areas over the next two years. The company’s business plan is to acquire apartment communities in good locations and then execute a market repositioning with capital improvements and superior property management resulting in increased rents, reduced expenses, and significant added resale value. In the past four months, Bascom Northwest added three other metro-area properties. In September, it acquired the 163-unit Kenmore Estates in Kenmore from Fairfield Residential for $10.2 million. In August, it acquired the 240-unit Bellevue Pointe Apartments in Bellevue from a private family partnership for $20.7 million. In June, it acquired the 750-unit Waterstone Place Apartments in Federal Way from Chicago-based Equity Residential for $49 million.