Bell Sells Greensboro and Durham Apartments for $30M

 

Steven D. Bell & Company has sold Northwinds Apartments in Greensboro and Springfield Apartments, a luxury community in Durham, for a combined total of $30 million.

Northwinds, a 332-unit community on Lee's Chapel Road, sold for $12 million, according to property records. That's a 38 percent increase over the $8.7 million the Bell firm paid for the complex when it bought Northwinds in August 2006.

The Bell company bought Northwinds as part of a nine-property purchase from United Dominion Realty Trust (UDRT), and the Bell firm has been divesting pieces of that portfolio since the purchase.

The first to be sold was Beechwood Apartments, also in Greensboro. Beechwood sold in late November 2006 for $11.5 million after it had been purchased for $8 million.

"Our strategy with the UDRT portfolio acquisition was to quickly resell non-core assets if we felt an attractive profit could be achieved," said Ed Harrington, the Bell company's president. "These resales have exceeded expectations."

Jon Bell, vice president of the company, said plans call for selling off at least five of the nine properties from the United Dominion deal.

Northwinds was purchased by HRatchford LLC, which has ties to Surety Land Title in Raleigh, according to records filed with the N.C. Secretary of State's office. The Bell firm said the buyer was a private investor from Gastonia.

Springfield Apartment Homes, a 288-unit community in Durham, was not part of the United Dominion deal. It was purchased in 2004 by the Bell firm and an institutional partner.