Colorado Real Estate Journal - November 4, 2015
A Class C apartment property in Colorado Springs sold to a buyer keen on the community’s upside. Creek View LLC paid $1.2 million for Fountain Hills, a 24-unit community at 2330 E. Fountain Blvd., situated in a thriving apartment market that has seen an upside in rents, including a 6 percent rent growth year-over-year during the second quarter of 2015. “There is a lot of room to push rents at Fountain Hills,” Saul Levy of ARA Newmark said of the community. “Effective rents at nearby properties were $100 to $250 higher at the time of the sale. The buyer has a great opportunity to increase rents to align with market standards as leases begin to expire.” Additionally, the buyer was attracted to the property’s unique features not typical of a 1960s asset. “All of the units at Fountain Hills have their own individual furnaces and central air conditioning. It is rare to find central air conditioning in 1960s product in Colorado Springs. In addition, several of the furnaces and air conditioning condensers were recently replaced and double-pane vinyl windows were installed throughout the property,” added Levy. Levy, along with ARA Newmark’s Kevin McKenna, represented seller Fountain Hills LLC. At the time of the sale, Fountain Hills was 96 percent occupied. Situated in the south central submarket, Fountain Hills has immediate access to Highway 24 and Interstate 25, and near Sierra Nevada Corp.’s planned $88 million facility, which will hire 2,100 new employees in the coming years, and FedEx’s new $20 million distribution center.