TruAmerica Multifamily Acquires Two SLC Apartments for $102 Million

TruAmerica Multifamily, in partnership with The Guardian Life Insurance Co., purchased two apartment properties in the Salt Lake City, Utah area for $102 million.

Berkadia Vice President James Wadsworth and Senior Advisor Greg Barratt represented both buyer and seller in the transaction.

TruAmerica acquired the 486-unit Somerset Village Apartment Homes in West Valley City and the 440-unit Southwillow Apartments in West Jordan from Jackson Square Partners, San Francisco. Both mid-1980’s vintage properties recently achieved 99 percent occupancy. 

The transaction comes on the heels of TruAmerica’s September acquisition of Settler’s Point, a 416-unit community in Salt Lake City from Equus Capital Partners in a transaction valued at $46 million. Berkadia’s Wadsworth and Barratt also arranged that sale and Managing Director Allan Freedman negotiated a seven-year loan at 2.45 percent floating interest rate with three years of interest-only payments through Berkadia’s Freddie Mac Program. 

TruAmerica started focusing on Salt Lake City at its founding two years ago. The city’s unemployment rate fell to 3.7 percent in July and job creation has attracted younger people to the area, transforming Utah into the nation’s youngest state with 32 percent of its population under the age of 32, the Census Bureau said.  

“We see Salt Lake City as the perfect apartment market,” said Greg Campbell, TruAmerica senior managing director of acquisitions. “We find that 18- to 31-year olds are much more likely to rent than to buy, and although Salt Lake City is one of the most affordable rental markets in the nation, the number of people flocking to the region will create upward pressure on rents.”