(To read more on the multifamily market, click here.)

SEATTLE-Three urban apartment properties here containing 173 units have changed hands for $34.25 million. Birkeland and Assoc. sold the Queen Anne and Capitol Hill neighborhood properties to a private investment fund of Granite Peak Partners, a Santa Barbara, CA-based real estate investment firm that has set its sights on the market.

The properties are Queen Vista (321 Queen Anne Ave N.), a six-story, 67,490-sf building with 87 units; Highland Crest (1205 Queen Anne Ave. N.), a 23,828 sf, four-story building with 34 units, and; the Summit (733 Summit Ave E.), a 31,860-sf, four story building with 52 units. Steffenie Birkeland and Joe Maas with Synergy Real Estate in Seattle brokered the deal.

To date in 2006, Granite Peak Partners has acquired 338 units in five urban apartment buildings on behalf of the fund, which is syndicated to high net worth investors. In October, the firm paid approximately $4 million for another Queen Anne property, Crest Manor, a 17,416-sf, four-story building with 20 units. In August, in a joint venture with Wysong Capital it acquired the two-building 142-unit Press Apartments on Capitol Hill for $33 million.

Except for the Press Apartments, the buildings acquired by Granite Peak are older assets that will benefit from renovations. Company partner Bruce Savett tells GlobeSt.com he will continue to be an aggressive buyer in the market and plans to continue to operate all but the Press Apartments as rentals.

"With Seattle's low rental vacancy rate, the demand for high-end apartments will continue to grow," he says. "We are excited about the…potential rent growth."

The Press Apartments are being sold off as condominiums in part because the timing is right, the location is right and the amenity package is attractive. The expected gross sellout is $47.5 million.

"I think Harbor Properties [the developer and seller] did an excellent job with the design, layout, location and views, but there's going to be a lot of competition one year from now," says Savett. "There's going to be a lot of high-rise and mid-rise condos coming to market in 2008 and I don't want to be anywhere near that."

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