MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — MTSU property fits new investment strategy.
Ari RosenblumMURFREESBORO, Tenn. — The Woodlark Companies, based in White Plains, N.Y., has closed on the University Ridge Apartments, a 200-unit, 512-bed facility built in 2005 at Middle Tennessee State University.
The acquisition represents the third in a program between Woodlark and an institutional equity partner designed to make opportunistic purchases of student housing. University Ridge was acquired from its Special Servicer, and in December 2011, the defaulted notes encumbering Boardwalk at Brittain Landing at the University of Alabama and Boardwalk at Dewberry Landing at the University of Southern Mississippi were acquired.
Both Boardwalk properties have 150 units and 600 beds and were constructed in 2008. Title to the properties was taken in early January 2012. Woodlark is the ninth largest student housing company in the U.S. and is actively looking for distressed or opportunistic acquisitions.
“Woodlark is pleased to further the roll out of our distressed acquisitions program, which we began implementing at the end of last year,” says Woodlark Companies Principal Ari Rosenblum. “Although we are still pursuing core projects, we believe that distressed or opportunistic transactions represent the best and highest value for investors in our space given the cap rate compression occurring across the board. With this deal, we were again able to find a unique way to complete a transaction with many constraints in a rapid time frame.”