Dune Real Estate Partners and Pantzer Properties Inc. have acquired an eight-property multifamily real estate portfolio in suburban Washington, D.C. for $460 million. The 2,580-unit portfolio was purchased by a 50-50 joint venture between Dune and Pantzer. The seller was not identified.

The newly acquired assets include apartment buildings in Alexandria and Manassas, Va., and Germantown, Md.  The properties will be managed by Panco Management, Pantzer Properties’ management division under the brand “The Point.”

According to Jones Lang LaSalle, whose Mid-Atlantic office brokered the transaction, the $460 million sale is the largest multifamily transaction in the country since 2008.

Edward Pantzer, CEO of New York-based Pantzer Properties, an owner and operator of investment properties, says the newly acquired properties are a mix of Class-A and B+ assets located in what is widely considered to be the most desirable real estate market in the country due to its strong local economy.

The newest units were built in 2000, while the oldest went up in 1975, according to the Wall Street Journal. The buildings sold for 70% of what they would have fetched at the peak of the market in 2008, according to an estimate by Dune.

“We own and operate exclusively on the East Coast, and these assets have great potential upside through interior and exterior renovations, repositioning and rebranding,” says Pantzer. The deal is the fourteenth investment that the Panco Strategic Real Estate Fund I LP has made in 2.5 years.

The shift away from homeownership toward rental properties is creating attractive apartment investment opportunities and Dune is well positioned to capitalize on this trend, says Cia Buckley, partner of New York-based Dune Real Estate Partners.

“As the economy recovers, capital is beginning to flow back into this market, and we are expecting rents to increase over the next three to four years,” adds Buckley.

In addition to this investment, Dune recently created a $1 billion joint venture with former executives of JPI to develop and acquire multifamily assets throughout the United States. The platform is known as TDI/Dune Real Estate Investments LLC.

The Dune Real Estate Funds were launched in 2005 to make opportunistic investments in a broad range of real estate-related assets, portfolios, joint ventures and operating companies worldwide.

The funds, which are managed by Dune Real Estate Partners, have more than $1.5 billion under management. The funds generally target distressed properties, underperforming and undervalued assets and portfolios, as well as value-creation opportunities.