2013 was a relatively quiet year for multifamily sales. After some fairly large deals over the past few years, there were relatively few large deals this year, save for a pending portfolio of 5 buildings in the West End and North Vancouver that were marketed by CBRE.

Why so few large deals? Chalk it up to a lack of sellers and values that have reached unsustainable heights. Buyers continue to be well-established owners looking to slowly build their portfolios, or local and offshore private equity simply looking to place capital in safe locations.

Here are the top 5 apartment deals of 2013 (ranked by purchase price):

1. 1952 Comox Street – a building known as “The Breakers” sold to well known landlords Hollyburn Properties in August for $16,350,000. The 10-storey, 61 unit building was built 1964. The cap rate was reported to be 4.8%. This was an off-market deal.

2. 1929 West 3rd Avenue – This 53-unit Kits lowrise apartment was put on the market with the Goodmans in 2012 and sold in January of this year for $15,200,000; equating to a 3.8% cap rate and $286,000 per unit. The building was built in 1973 and contains 47 one-bedrooms and 6 two-bedrooms.

3. 1715 West 11th Avenue – Granville Villa, a 65-unit apartment building located at West 11th Avenue and Pine Street in the South Granville area of Vancouver sold in July for $14,867,000; equating to a 3.3% cap rate, and $228,000 per unit. The 3-storey building was built in 1973 and contains mostly one-bedrooms and bachelor units. The building had been listed for sale for $16,500,000. The buyer was local private equity.

4. 990 Bute Street – this 36-unit apartment building at the corner of Nelson and Bute was sold off-market to well-known apartment owner Belmont Properties in May 2013. The building had been fully renovated by the previous owner. The $13,000,000 purchase price represents a 4.1% cap rate and $360,000 per unit.

5. 30 East 11th Avenue – This 66-unit highrise was purchased by local investor Raymond Heung in August. The 10-storey concrete building was built in 1976 and was formerly owned by The Baptist Housing Society of B.C.

Chip Wilson, former CEO of Lululemon, has reportedly acquired 1770 West 7th Avenue, a 5-storey, 75,000 SF office building located at Burrard and West 7th. The building, built in 1985, was sold for $32,625,000, or $430 per SF.

The city’s sale of 801 Columbia St., to the owners of the Shops at New West Station mall next door is expected to be completed this week, said Mike Lowe, B.C. region managing director for First Capital Realty.

New Westminster recently gave notice it was selling the property at the foot of the New Westminster SkyTrain station for $1,950,000 after paying $1,885,000 for it in 2008. The city has been using the property as a construction staging site for the Anvil Centre and Merchant Square office complex across Eighth. It will remain in the city’s possession until June 30, 2014.

“We haven’t got anything drawn up yet, but obviously we’re going to try and maximize density there and try to marry it up against our other project and all the other projects that are in the area. We have not finalized any plans on that,” said Lowe.

He added the company is willing to work with the city on figuring out what to do with the property.

Read more: http://www.newwestnewsleader.com/news/235255381.html

Bentall Kennedy has submitted a rezoning application for the site it owns at 1090 West Pender Street, currently an 11-storey office building.

Bentall acquired the property from West Pender Property Group in 2011 for $19,500,000 as part of a transaction that included a trade of 50% interest in 1050 West Pender Street.

The plan calls for a new 31-storey office building with:

• 564,000 SF of office space with retail and service uses on the lower two levels;
• 486 underground parking spaces;
• a total density of 18.0 FSR
• a total height of 403 ft. (about the same height as Bentall 3)

Link to the full rezoning application: http://former.vancouver.ca/commsvcs/planning/rezoning/applications/1090wpender/index.htm