Listen to this articleMississippi View Apartments, a 1970s-vintage affordable housing complex in Coon Rapids, is under new ownership after a $16.3 million sale.
Plymouth-based Dominium sold the riverfront property to Mississippi View Housing Partners LP, an entity related to Seattle-based affordable housing developer Vitus, according to a real estate document made public Wednesday. Built in 1975, the 96-unit, two-building complex is on a 5.1-acre site at 11010 Mississippi Blvd. NW. The sale breaks down to nearly $170,000 per unit.
Dominium worked with broker Andy Daitch of Marcus & Millichap on the transaction, said Mike Voss, Dominium director of communications. In 2006, the local affordable housing developer paid $6.3 million for the building, according to Catylist.
In an email, Voss said there was “no specific reason” for the sale. “It’s just part of the normal management of a large portfolio of properties. You build some, you buy some, you sell some — based on a variety of factors.”
Finance & Commerce reached out to Vitus for comment.
On its website, Vitus says it has “three decades of experience in acquiring, renewing and preserving federally subsidized housing.” The company’s portfolio includes more than 120 properties in 30 states with a combined 15,000-plus housing units.
The website lists two other Minnesota properties: Shakopee Village, a 62-unit senior building at 1428 Fourth Ave. E. in Shakopee, and Eastridge Estates, a 126-unit building at 2009 17th St. SE in Rochester.
In all, Vitus has invested in more than $200 million of property renovations since 2020 and has received more than 200 federal low-income tax credit awards, according to the website.
Matt Mullins, a vice president with Minneapolis real estate consultancy Maxfield Research, said there’s a lot of factors to consider in the sale of an affordable housing asset. Among those are the rate of affordability and the length of time the property is required to stay affordable.
“It’s not quite as black-and-white as a market-rate deal might be,” Mullins said, adding that nearly $170,000 per door appears to be a strong price for an older asset in today’s environment.
By comparison, an entity related to Roseville-based Global Health Link Inc. recently paid $5.01 million, or $94,528 per unit, for Phalen Shores, a 53-unit multifamily property at 965 Ivy Ave. E. in St. Paul. Phalen Shores LLC, an entity related to St. Louis Park-based Steven Scott Management Inc., was the buyer.
On the other end of the spectrum, the 435-unit Arrive Minnetonka building at 300 Carlson Parkway in Minnetonka recently traded for $89 million, or $204,600 per door.
As of September, the average sales price per unit for apartments in the Twin Cities metro area was $152,719, according to the Finance & Commerce Apartment Sales Tracker at finance-commerce.com.
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