Equity Residential Sells in Boston Suburb for Nearly $100M

The Boston suburb of Malden is home to a couple of major multifamily deals this year. Equity Residential and FPA Multifamily have made it a trifecta as they took opposite sides on a near nine-figure deal.

San Francisco-based FPA bought Arrive Malden — the former Gateway at Malden Center — on 14 Summer Street for $97 million, the Boston Business Journal reported. The deal for the 203-unit property pencils out to nearly $478,000 per unit.

Chicago-based Equity Residential was the seller of the property, situated across from the MBTA Orange Line’s Malden Center station. CBRE brought the buyer and represented the seller.

The building last changed hands in 2003, when Equity Residential purchased the property for $34.9 million. The city’s most recent assessment of the property pinned its value at $70 million.

Rents at the fully market-rate property range from $2,868 to $3,621, according to Apartments.com. Amenities include a fitness center, outdoor grilling areas, a resident lounge with Wi-Fi and a sauna.

FPA has dabbled in and around the Boston area in recent months. This summer, the firm purchased a 99-unit apartment building in Easton. It also bought the Gardencrest Apartments in Waltham last year for $221 million.

Back in March, FPA — on a veritable streak of suburban multifamily buys — purchased the 356-unit Huntington Apartments at 20 South Naper Boulevard in Naperville, Illinois, for $68 million, or $191,000 per unit.

Equity Residential has been quiet in recent months, but made a big splash last year when it agreed to acquire 11 apartment complexes with more than 3,500 combined units from Blackstone for $964 million.

Malden has witnessed buzzy sales in the multifamily market this year. In June, Greystar paid $113 million for the 295-unit Avana Cliffside on Broadway. That deal came three months after Boston-based Rockpoint paid $268 million for the 919-unit Altitude Apartments complex.

— Holden Walter-Warner