Independence Woods Oakland Estates press release March 12, 2012
Press Release
ARA’s National Manufactured Housing Group Executes Sale of Two Manufactured Housing Communities
Single Buyer Acquires Communities from Same Seller for $28.7 million
Clarkston, MI (March 12, 2012) — Atlanta-headquartered ARA, the largest privately held, full-service investment advisory brokerage firm in the nation focusing exclusively on the multihousing industry, is pleased to announce the sale of Independence Woods Manufactured Home Community located in Clarkston, MI and Oakland Estates Manufactured Home Community located in Auburn Hills, MI.
ARA National Manufactured Housing Group Co-Directors, Todd Fletcher (based in Denver, CO) and Andrew Shih (based in Austin, TX), represented an experienced private syndicator in the transaction. The assets were acquired by a large private operator that was new to the region.
"The sale was a true testament to the marketing process," said Shih. "While the buyer is an experienced player in the manufactured housing arena, they were relatively inactive on the acquisitions side of the business in the last few years until recently and had never purchased a community in Michigan."
Independence Woods and Oakland Estates are both all age communities located within the Detroit MSA. The communities are situated in close proximity to major thoroughfares, numerous shopping centers and two higher education institutions, Oakland University and Oakland Community College. The purchase price included some inventory homes.
Built in 1991, Independence Woods is a well-maintained, Class A community with 430 sites. All of the sites in the community contain multi-section homes with abundant off-street parking for two to three cars per homesite, including many stick-built garages.
Oakland Estates is also a Class A community with 259-sites and was built in 1980. The community is located on 43.68 acres and considered low density at 5.93 sites per acre, and offers an attractive mix of single-section and multi-section homes.
"Both assets are attractive, low density communities in terrific locations with a proven track record of stable performance," said Fletcher, "yet there is still an opportunity for the buyer to capture upside potential through financing and/or lease purchase option programs with existing inventory homes."
To schedule an interview with an ARA executive regarding this transaction or for more information about ARA, nationally please contact Lisa Robinson at lrobinson@ARAusa.com , 678.553.9360 or Amy Morris at amorris@ARAusa.com , 678.553.9366; locally, Jordan Brosseau at jbrosseau@ARAusa.com or 512-637-1229.
About ARA
Atlanta-headquartered ARA is the largest privately held, full-service investment advisory firm in the nation that focuses exclusively on the brokerage, financing and capital sourcing of multihousing properties including conventional, affordable, distressed assets, notes sales, seniors, student & manufactured housing and multihousing land. ARA is comprised of the country’s top investment professionals who leverage a unique and fully integrated cooperative business platform of shared information, relationships and technology driven solutions. ARA’s unified enterprise approach ensures that clients are delivered the broadest asset exposure, effective matching of buyers and sellers, and the shortest transaction timeframes in the industry. The combination of resources, unparalleled market expertise and nationwide presence in the multihousing marketplace has resulted in average annual production volume of $5.4 billion in real estate transactions since 2004. For detailed information on ARA’s extensive multihousing investment services, visit www.arausa.com