Knightvest pays $73.7M for Phoenix apartments in out-of-state run

Knightvest Capital, a Texas firm, paid $73.7 million for Pavilions on Central, a 254-unit garden-style apartment complex in Phoenix's Midtown neighborhood. The Real Deal reported the sale. At $289,960 per unit, the price falls between two recent out-of-state deals. San Diego's ColRich paid $196,000 a unit for Mesa's Avia 266. Newport Beach's Golden Horizon Enterprises paid $336,826 a unit for the Bungalows on Camelback. Security Properties, the seller, bought the complex for $59 million in 2018.

The complex sits across from the Campbell/Central station on the Valley Metro B Line and was built in 2000. Floor plans run one, two and three bedrooms, averaging 1,109 square feet. More than 70 percent of the units are lofts or townhomes. A total of 216 units come with direct-access garages. WalletHub ranks the Phoenix area the most renter-friendly market in the country, with Scottsdale, Gilbert and Chandler taking the top three spots.

The Knightvest deal continues a stretch of Phoenix-area apartment sales driven largely by out-of-state investors. San Diego's ColRich paid $52.4 million this month for Mesa's 267-unit Avia 266. Last month, Newport Beach's Marlowe Moy of Golden Horizon Enterprises paid $112.5 million for the 334-unit Bungalows on Camelback. In April, Blackstone sold the 412-unit Arrowhead Summit in Glendale to Santa Barbara's NALS Apartment Homes for $101.4 million. The luxury side drew an out-of-state buyer too: billionaire Arte Moreno paid $125 million in cash for the 253-unit Cortland Biltmore.

The new sale is $14.7 million above the 2018 purchase price. That is a gross gain of about 25 percent over eight years, before any capital work. The trade also gives Midtown a fresh per-unit marker for garden-style apartments with direct-access garages.