Topeka, Kan. -- Investors Real Estate Trust (IRET) has announced that its operating partnership, IRET Properties, has completed the acquisition of Villa West Apartments in Topeka, Kans. for a purchase price of $17.65 million.
The property is comprised of 44 apartment buildings, with 308 apartment units. The purchase is in accordance with the company's strategic plan to own 10,000 units in the company's top 10 core markets. This acquisition brings the total apartment units owned by IRET Properties in the Topeka, Kansas area to 1,042.
IRET Properties previously completed its acquisition of Ashland Apartments in Grand Forks, N.D. on March 16, 2012, for a total purchase price of $8.31 million. This property consists of two buildings of 38 and 46 units. Apartment units owned by IRET Properties in Grand Forks now total 1,134.
Construction of IRET’s 159-unit Quarry Ridge II multi-family residential development in Rochester, Minn. is in the final stages. The first 79 units of this addition adjacent to IRET's existing Quarry Ridge I property are 77 percent pre-leased. The remaining 80 units are expected to be completed July 1, 2012 and are 25 percent pre-leased to date. The Quarry Ridge II development brings IRET's total apartment units in Rochester to 1,108.
"Construction on the Quarry Ridge II project has been ahead of schedule, and the lease-up of the development is exceeding our expectations. Additionally, we are pleased that IRET has not experienced any reduction of occupancy in the existing Phase I at Quarry Ridge," Andy Martin, IRET's senior vice president of residential property management said in statement.
Martin also noted that IRET's Williston Garden Apartments, a joint venture development of which IRET owns 60 percent, is 100 percent pre-leased. This development will provide 90 furnished units and 55 unfurnished units. Currently, two of the four buildings are open and the remaining two are scheduled to open this summer. This property is located in the heart of the Bakken Shale Oil Formation in Williston, N.D.