Harbor Group International, a Norfolk-based real estate investment company, announced Wednesday that it has bought 36 apartment complexes from Los Angeles-based Aragon Holdings for $1.85 billion. The company paid $580 million in cash to fund the deal and financed the remainder.
The deal is part of Aragon’s $2 billion sale of its entire apartment portfolio, which the company had amassed over 10 years. It was the single largest apartment portfolio sale in the country since 2016.
Harbor Group generally focuses on buying apartment complexes it can add improvements to, increasing its return on investment.
Its new apartment complexes hold 13,243 units, which brings Harbor Group’s total to nearly 50,000 rental units. The number could put it among the top 20 apartment owners next year in the annual rank from the National Multifamily Housing Council. Right now, it’s ranked 30th.
The properties are in eight states: 13 locations in Dallas, Houston, Fort Worth and San Antonio, Texas; eight in Denver, Colorado; five in Kansas City and St. Louis, Missouri ; four in Atlanta, Georgia; two in Orlando, Florida; two in Albuquerque, New Mexico; one in Phoenix, Arizona; and one in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Wall Street Journal reported that the apartments, 95% occupied, target middle-class renters, and charge average monthly rents of $1,010.
