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COLUMBUS, OH-Associated Estates Realty Corp. has sold 790 multifamily units in Columbus and Raleigh, NC, to two unnamed buyers. The REIT sold a 276-unit Raleigh property to one buyer, and a Columbus portfolio of three apartment complexes totaling 514 units to another.

Lou Fatica, chief financial officer of Associated Estates, tells GlobeSt.com that the recent dispositions fit the company's strategic plans to shed non-core Midwest assets and to exit markets where it doesn't plan to grow. The later plan was the reason the company sold its only Raleigh property--Windsor Falls, a 12-year-old, 276-unit complex at 1500 Sunbow Falls Lane.

Fatica says that the REIT, which owned 14 multifamily properties in the Columbus area prior to the recent sale, had identified four as non-core assets. The three properties that have been sold are the 102-unit Oak Bend Commons at 6680 Oak Bend Commons Way in Canal Winchester, the 156-unit Colony Bay East at 3450 Brooke Colony Dr. in Canal Winchester, and the 256-unit Pendleton Lake East at 2727 Grand Haven Dr. in Reynoldsburg. The fourth property--the 164-unit Muirwood Village at Bennell at 3251 Haddington Dr. in Reynoldsburg--is still being marketed for sale.