Liberty Center, 238 Units, Liberty Township OH
How We Got It It’s rare to get great new product at under $160,000 a unit. Yet, we did just that and have all the upside of being embedded in a 1.2mm square foot, thriving lifestyle center that offers 27 eateries, 50+ specialty retailers and numerous entertainment venues. Our low entry basis was the result of a protracted and complicated closing during the peak of the pandemic before the vaccinations had been fully validated
Investment Rationale We acquired 238 podium style units at Liberty Center in May of 2021 at a very attractive 5.2% cap rate. We knew the Seller, who had manually priced for years, was leaving money on the table. We pushed rents $150 immediately and built the wait list to 37 all by the third month anniversary of closing.
Results Within 3 months, our proforma cap rate was tracking to 6.5% as we immediately posted mid-teen lease trade-outs. We’ve worked hard to get the retail into a good position relative to the mess we acquired, having recently leased 9,200 SF to a credit tenant and are delivering the build-out ahead of schedule and below budget. The retail represents ~15% of the total deal valuation. An August 2024 BOV details a valuation of ~$227,000 per unit which would generate a 1.48x multiple on invested capital (after exit costs and after the sponsor promote) if we chose to sell today.