Dealmaker: Passco Cos. Acquires Kentucky Apartments for $64M

Passco Cos., Irvine, Calif., acquired The Henry at Fritz Farm apartment community in growing Lexington, Ky., for $62.4 million from the Dobbins Group of Birmingham, Ala.

Chris Black and Caleb Marten of KeyBank Real Estate Capital’s Commercial Mortgage Group arranged acquisition financing for the purchase.

Passco Vice President of Acquisitions Colin Gillis noted the 306-unit Class A apartment community is part of entertainment and retail district The Summit at Fritz Farm. Developed by Bayer Properties, Birmingham, Ala., the mixed-use master-planned community includes 280,000 square feet of Class A retail space including anchors Whole Foods, William-Sonoma and Pottery Barn.

The Summit also includes an office component and a soon-to- open 120-room Origin Hotel, the boutique hotel firm’s third United States location.

Gillis said the Lexington market population has increased nearly 25 percent from since 2010. “Lexington is a very wealthy, established community that continues to grow and create numerous new high-paying jobs. That is reflected in the absorption rate and the on-site demographics at The Henry,” he said.

Metro Lexington’s economy has traditionally been led by healthcare and tourism but large Fortune 500 companies including Amazon and Xerox have started to move in, Gillis noted. Among the top employers in the region are the University of Kentucky, Toyota, Amazon, Lexmark International and Lockheed Martin, he said.

Moody’s Investors Services rated Lexington as being as in an expansion cycle phase, with the metro seeing an influx of business and development.