Brookfield-based
MLG Capital has sold the
Frederick Lofts in downtown Milwaukee to a large, national multi-family investment and management company for $18.5 million.
The 100-unit apartment building is located at 840 W. Juneau Ave., in
The Brewery district.
An announcement of the deal did not disclose the sale price or the name of the buyer. A deed recorded with the Milwaukee County Register of Deeds office showed the property sold for $18.5 million, and that the buyer is an affiliate of Kirkland, Washington-based
Weidner Apartment Homes.
The city assesses the property at $15 million. It was constructed in 2015.
MLG did not hold onto the property for long. It purchased the Frederick Lofts
in March 2019 for $16 million, as part of MLG Private Fund III. The seller was Oregon, Wisconsin-based Gorman & Co., which
developed the building.
The fund is MLG's third in a series of nationally diversified private real-estate investment funds. It included $150 million of original equity that yielded the acquisition of 40 properties totaling more than 3.7 million square feet and nearly 8,500 residential units across 14 states. Three-quarters of the assets in that fund are multi-family properties, and the remaining are a mix of industrial, retail and office.
“At MLG, we look for proactive opportunities to acquire assets where we feel there is room to increase the overall income of assets to enhance the property value, whether through property improvements, equalizing rents, capitalizing on growing communities and more,” David Binder, vice president at MLG, said in a statement. “We then proactively sell those assets at key times to meet our investors’ expectations of returns.”
A big part of MLG's strategy is knowing the right time to buy and to exit, Binder said. The firm holds onto an asset for roughly seven years.
The sale of Frederick Lofts marks MLG's seventh disposition under Fund III. MLG Capital recently
opened its fifth fund, with a targeted equity size of $300 million, in January 2021.
Weidner has built a portfolio of Milwaukee multi-family properties over the last several years.
In 2017, it
bought two apartment complexes on Milwaukee's northwest side for $29.2 million total, and shortly thereafter it
acquired the St. James Place Apartments for $24.5 million.
In 2018, it
bought the Avenir apartments downtown for $22.3 million, where it
plans to develop more units. It also
bought the River House Apartments around that time for $58 million.
In 2019, it
acquired the Latitude Apartments for $13.7 million, and it
bought the Stitchweld Apartments for a whopping $54.3 million.
