Blackstone Sells Apartments Near Phoenix at Loss

Blackstone sold a Phoenix-area apartment complex at a loss five years after buying it.

The New York-based firm sold the 412-unit Arrowhead Summit complex at 18330 North 79th Avenue in Glendale for under $101.4 million, taking a roughly 18 percent loss on the $123.6 million it paid in 2021, the Phoenix Business Journal reported. The sale price amounts to $246,000 per unit.

An entity linked to Santa Barbara, California-based NALS Apartment Homes purchased the property. The complex was 93 percent occupied at the time of closing.

Blackstone has been shedding assets across its portfolio, including a $1.8 billion sell-off of its entire senior housing portfolio consisting of 90 properties across the country — an exit expected to result in steep losses, the outlet said.

While Arrowhead Summit isn’t part of that portfolio, the sale speaks to multifamily troubles amid elevated interest rates, softer rent growth and tighter capital markets compared to the pandemic-era buying spree.

Built in 1999 by Fairfield Residential, the property traded for nearly $60.6 million in 2018 to Cortland Partners, which renovated the property and sold it to Blackstone in July 2021 for $123.6 million.

While Blackstone took a loss on the Arrowhead Summit transaction, it’s still a notable sales price for the region, standing as the third multifamily sale above $100 million in the Phoenix so far this year.

Last month, billionaire sports team owner and real estate investor Arte Moreno purchased Cortland Biltmore, a 253-unit apartment complex built in 2019, for $125 million. That represents the highest price paid so far this year in the Phoenix area. The 2016-built Avant at Fashion Center property sold in January to Stockdale Capital Partners for nearly $110.3 million.

— Chris Malone Méndez