Virtú Investments Buys West Seattle Apartments, Retail

Two mixed-use multifamily properties in West Seattle sold in a combined nine-figure deal.

Carlsbad, California-based Virtú Investments bought the 136-unit Mural property at 4727 42nd Avenue Southwest and the 200-unit Link property at 4550 38th Avenue Southwest for $111 million total, the Puget Sound Business Journal reported. The price works out to an average of more than $330,350 per unit. The seller was an affiliate of Los Angeles-based American Realty Advisors.

There are currently no new apartments coming down the pike in West Seattle, and development in general has begun to dry up. It’s likely partially due to the higher cost of construction and longer construction timelines that have made California an infamously expensive place to develop. While Seattle isn’t the most expensive market to build new apartment buildings, it’s among the highest in the country.

Virtú saw an opportunity with the Mural and Link properties against the backdrop of the empty pipeline.

“We are very bullish on the Seattle market and its supply-versus-demand fundamentals,” Erik Reif, senior director of acquisitions for Virtú, said of the transaction. “The supply situation in Seattle is very interesting. The cost to deliver this kind of product today would be approximately $500,000 per unit.”

Seattle-based Harbor Properties developed both the Mural and Link, with the former opening in 2009 and the latter welcoming residents two years later. American Realty Advisors bought the developments from Harbor Properties in 2012 for a total of $104.5 million.

The retail portions of both Mural and Link are fully leased. At the Mural, tenants like Portage Bay Cafe, Season’s Salon & Spa and Just Poke take up the 5,000 square feet of commercial space, while the Link’s 13,000 square feet of commercial space are filled by tenants like West of Chicago Pizza and Bright Horizons at West Seattle. The Link also boasts subterranean parking for 125 vehicles.

Virtú’s latest purchases add to its holdings in the Seattle area, including the 338-unit Skyglass tower in South Lake Union. The firm picked up that property last July for $173.8 million. And it isn’t done yet, as the company is reportedly actively looking for more multifamily investment opportunities in the Seattle area.

— Chris Malone Méndez