The Foundry previously served as a US government office building in northern Virginia
South Korea-based IGIS Asset Management has acquired a 520-unit multi-family asset in Alexandria, Virginia in partnership with US investor Timberline Real Estate Ventures, placing a bet on rental residential in one of America’s priciest cities for housing.
Located 10 miles (16 kilometres) south of downtown Washington DC, The Foundry is a former government office building converted into a 16-storey luxury apartment complex with 25,562 square feet (2,375 square metres) of retail space. The project was completed in March 2020 and sits two blocks from a DC Metro station and five miles south of e-commerce giant Amazon’s under-construction second headquarters in Arlington, Virginia.
IGIS and Timberline bought The Foundry for an undisclosed amount from two local developers, Perseus TDC and Four Points, and Boston investment firm ELV Associates, according to a press release.
“The Foundry added high-end residential space to a dynamic region experiencing explosive growth,” said Adam Peters, regional partner at Perseus TDC. “This successful adaptive-reuse project demonstrates the value of repositioning vacant, dated assets into thriving, amenity-rich multi-family developments.”
Booming Corridor
Situated in Alexandria’s Carlyle neighbourhood, The Foundry offers a mix of studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments for rent, complemented by amenities such as a three-storey fitness facility, spin and yoga studios, a rooftop pool and terrace, and an indoor dog park.
Adam Peters of Perseus TDC
The property’s website advertises rents ranging from $1,920 a month for a one-bedroom, one-bathroom unit of 600 square feet to $3,310 a month for a two-bed, two-bath unit of 1,231 square feet.
A recent analysis by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance found that Alexandria had the eighth-highest average home price among US cities at $895,571, a premium of 127 percent to the country’s average. Nearby Arlington had the fifth-highest average price at $950,969.
In addition to Amazon HQ2, The Foundry sits near the newly launched Virginia Tech Innovation Campus providing graduate education in computer science and computer engineering. Both projects are expected to fuel demand for multi-family properties.
“Alexandria has one of the nation’s deepest pools of highly educated talent, and Timberline aims to capitalise on the investment underway across business, research and infrastructure that will further propel the area’s economy,” said Kyle Nemeroff, director of acquisitions at Timberline Real Estate Ventures.
Varied Investments
For Seoul-based IGIS, the new multi-family acquisition joins a North American portfolio with interests in warehouse, office and mixed-use residential properties.
Last December, the investment firm reportedly acquired three Amazon-leased warehouses in Virginia, Missouri and Minnesota for $390 million in a joint venture with developer Scannell Properties.
IGIS has also made equity investments in office properties including the Midtown Center in Washington DC and One AT&T Plaza in Dallas, leading a consortium of Korean investors to acquire an 80 percent interest in the Texas tower.
In Toronto, IGIS loaned $423 million collected from Korean institutional investors to Mizrahi Developments to fund construction of The One, a mixed-use skyscraper with luxury condos. At 338 metres (1,109 feet) high, the project is set to become Canada’s tallest building upon completion in 2022 or 2023.
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