OXON HILL, MD-A rare value-add multifamily project traded here for $9.5 million. The price may seem low--after all the property is a 305-unit community. The catch is that occupancy was 35% when the trade was being negotiated. Today it is effectively empty.

That, however, was the intent of the buyer, Dragone Realty, which acquired the complex, Azalea Woods, as an opportunistic play to develop workforce housing, “which is our business model,” says principal Vito Dragone. “Our biggest problem has been that we haven’t been able to find many opportunities in value-add multifamily.” That is beginning to change, however, he tells GlobeSt.com. “People have been sitting on their properties for the past two years, but now we are seeing more come to market.”

None, though, offered the value-add opportunity of Azalea Woods. Located at 1101 Kennebec St., the property had been seized by the special servicer about a year ago. “The property had fallen into disrepair and due to some regulatory issues that came up, the previous owners lost their business license,” explains CB Richard Ellis’ Mike Muldowney. “That is when the downward spiral in occupancy really began,” he tells GlobeSt.com. Muldowney, along with Bill Roohan, Andrew Boyer, Michael Rudolph, Jonathan Greenberg, Brian Margerum, Martha Hastings and Trish Bonebrake, brokered the transaction.