Memphis firm buys Boulder student apartment complex for $48.8M

BOULDER — Just when you thought the apartment market in Boulder County couldn’t get any hotter, a company from Memphis, Tenn., that specializes in student housing has bought The Province complex in Boulder for a price of nearly $581,000 per unit.

EdR, formerly known as Education Realty Trust, closed on the $48.8 million purchase of the 84-unit complex built around the former First Christian Church at 950 28th St. Ohio-based Edwards Student Housing Management Co., which developed The Province, was the seller.

The Province, completed in 2014, is geared entirely toward students and features fully furnished units. It includes a mix of two-bed, two-bath units; three-bed, three-bath units; and four-bed, four-bath units. The apartments are rented out on a per-bed basis, with four-bedroom units starting at $954 per bed and two-bedroom units starting at $1,210 per unit, according to the complex’s website. The complex is fully leased.

EdR (NYSE: EDR) already had a foothold in Boulder as owner of The Lotus Apartments, another off-campus student housing complex next door to The Province at 900 28th St.

“We like this property because it serves a growing, robust university,” said Susan Jennings, EdR vice president for corporate communications and marketing. “We had already bought into the market at The Lotus.

“It’s just easier to manage the whole area,” added Jennings, noting the synergies in management and maintenance created by owning two properties so close together.

The Province sale as a whole doesn’t top some other major sales in Boulder County over the past year. But on a per-unit basis, it dwarfs those deals. Two Nine North in Boulder, a 238-unit complex, sold for $93 million, or about $393,000 per unit, last year. The Horizons at Rock Creek, a 1,206-unit complex in Superior, sold for $255 million, or about $211,000 per unit, in April. Ironhorse at Mill Village, a 220-unit complex in Longmont, recently sold for $50 million, or $228,000 per unit.

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