Bridgetown Apartments

Bridgetown Apartments is a unique new construction apartment building located in one of Portland’s most desirable neighborhoods.

A unique building with high attention to detail, Bridgetown Apartments was completed in 2017, and consists of 50 apartment homes, with four ground floor retail units. The property was situated in the heart of the Beaumont district, one of Portland’s hottest close-in eastside residential neighborhoods. During the early stages of completion, Ethos Development (Ownership) engaged the Kidder Mathews’ Portland apartment specialists, Jordan Carter, Clay Newton, and Tyler Linn (the KM Team) to evaluate the property and market it for sale.

The History

The developer of Bridgetown Apartments sought to design a building that was truly unique to the Beaumont area. The building they created achieved that, with variated facades, 6,000 square feet of retail space to accommodate a restaurant and a three small shops, and an outdoor entry courtyard designed to encourage people to congregate. Other features included 11 parking spots and a prominent yoga and community room. As interiors were being built out and finished, Ethos Development engaged with several brokerage firms for disposition strategies on selling the property. With a unique approach and proven track record, the KM Team ultimately won the assignment, with the goal of achieving a new high watermark for pricing in Portland’s close-in Eastside.

The Challenge

Bridgetown was an incredibly exclusive building in quality and level of finish – unrepresentative of buildings in the immediate submarket. There had only been one other newer construction apartment built and sold within the immediate area, which was inferior in design and quality. Bridgetown was in the early stages of lease up when the KM Team was engaged to market the property. Understanding that less than half the building was occupied, and only two of the four retail spaces, Bridgetown lacked operating history and comparables. The KM Team utilized an initial “soft” marketing approach to a select few highly qualified buyers. The goal was to give only the most aggressive capital a “first look” at a property, and despite still being in lease-up, let the property’s quality, design, and long-term potential sell itself. One walkthrough of Bridgetown and the immediate neighborhood, and any investor would recognize how unique Bridgetown Apartments was, while justifying pricing of a building that was a true leader in the submarket.

Results

Through an aggressive calling campaign and networking through other new construction listings that the KM Team had in the market, they were able to tap into several exchange buyers that were looking for quality new construction assets. The marketing campaign resulted in an optimum outcome, locating a highly qualified out of state 1031 exchange buyer that not only set record-breaking pricing for comparable assets, but who also provided assurance of closing by going non-refundable with a sizeable earnest money deposit upon execution of the Purchase Agreement. Both Buyer and Seller were incredibly pleased with the transaction – the Buyer was able to acquire a unique asset, while the seller received their desired pricing.