Arte Moreno Pays $125 Million for Phoenix Apartments

Billionaire Arte Moreno closed out the first quarter with a $125 million purchase in Phoenix.

The Los Angeles Angels owner, acting through an LLC, acquired the Cortland Biltmore luxury apartments in the Biltmore area of Phoenix in an all-cash deal, the Phoenix Business Journal reported. Cortland Partners, which built the 253-unit residential community at 2727 East Camelback Road in 2019, was the seller.

The price makes it the most expensive apartment property and the second luxury development in the region to sell for more than $100 million so far this year. In January, Los Angeles-based Stockdale Capital Partners spent nearly $110.3 million for Avant at Fashion Center in Chandler. The same day, Principal Financial acquired the Biltmore at Camelback apartments for almost $97.4 million.

The $494,000-per-unit price at Cortland Biltmore is higher than many other multifamily transactions in the area, with the median price for all sales across the metro being approximately $219,000 per unit, Peter O’Neil, national research director for Northmarq, told the outlet. Newer properties in the area traded hands for between $325,000 and $430,000 per unit in the first quarter. In the fourth quarter of last year, the range was $325,000 and $415,000 per unit. The sale of Scottsdale on Main in October fetched $555,000 per unit.

Moreno has been purchasing property across the Phoenix region over the past two years.

Last April, he bought a 21-acre lot in Gilbert for $24.5 million and followed it up in September with a 1.5-acre parcel acquisition near Camelback Road and 44th Street, a few minutes east of Cortland Biltmore, for $11 million. In late 2024, Moreno plunked down $60 million to buy an office complex behind his mansion in Biltmore Estates, thereby stopping the proposed development of a luxury apartment complex on a portion of that 12-acre site. — Chris Malone Méndez