Land and Houses decided that one of America’s fastest growing cities was a perfect place for an investment acquiring Yard, a 21-storey tower in the east end of the Burnside Bridge neighborhood of the city, the Portland Business Journal reports. Jeff Pickhardt and the other people behind the new apartment buildings hadn’t been looking to sell but were impressed by the offer from the Thai residential developer.
“I think Land and Houses saw the value in the program at a lot of different levels, particularly at the community level,” Pickhardt says.
It was noted that financial details of the sale have not disclosed, however, the transaction was completed by a subsidiary of the Bangkok-based Land and Houses, Thailand’s largest residential developer based on market capitalisation.
“With the Yard acquisition, Land and Houses is confident in a long-term prospect of the city of Portland and in a strong economic fundamental of the Pacific Northwest driven by persistent growth of its many industries,” Sith Chaisurote, president of Land and Houses, tells the Portland Business Journal.
This is Land and Houses first acquisition in Portland and makes the developer one of a limited number of Thai companies to have invested in the US real estate market. The building is nearly 50 per cent leased with the building only starting to have been leased-up in August.
“Obviously the timing couldn’t be better,” Tom Brenneke, president of Guardian Real Estate Services, one of the other owners of Yard who had been managing the leasing of the building’s units, explains. “If you’re shopping for a tower in Portland, you just don’t have many choices. There’s nothing out there to buy. This is a trophy deal.”
The Yard project has 57 units dedicated to workforce housing and leased to people whose incomes are 60 per cent or less of median family income. More than 350 applications were submitted when those units went up for lease earlier this year.
