Los Angeles Investor Enters Multifamily Market in Tech-Rich Provo, Utah

January 7, 2021

DB Capital Management Buys Aging Property, Plans Improvements
Union Square Apartments, a 167-unit property built in 1991, sits in Provo, Utah. (DB Capital Management)

Los Angeles investment rm DB Capital Management acquired its first apartment property in Provo, Utah, a small city about 40 miles south of downtown Salt Lake City
where tech companies have grown in recent years. DB Capital Management said it bought Union Square Apartments, a 167-unit apartment
property at 424 N. 300 E, for $16 million. Union Square Apartments sold the property, 1/29/2021 Los Angeles Investor Enters Multifamily Market in Tech-Rich Provo, Utah which was built in 1991, according to CoStar research.

The sale price equates to roughly $95,808 per unit, which is almost half the city’s average multifamily sale price of $180,000 per unit, according to CoStar research.
“Union Square Apartments represents a unique opportunity to acquire a 1990s vintage asset at a significant discount to replacement cost,” Brennen Degner, co-founder, and CEO of DB Capital Management, said in a statement.

DB Capital Management is planning capital improvements to “bring the property up to market standards,” according to the statement. While DB Capital Management owns approximately 300 apartment units in Salt Lake City, this investment marks the company’s first acquisition in Provo. While not within the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, Provo benefits from its relative proximity to the city, as well as from Utah’s business-friendly climate. “The Provo and Salt Lake metros consistently ranked among the top locations nationally to start or expand tech businesses,” Megan Cambon, a market analyst with CoStar Group, writes in a recent report.

Some major tech companies that have expanded into Provo include Ancestry.com, eBay, Adobe and Qualtrics, according to CoStar research. The city is also home to Brigham Young University, which has a student population of roughly 33,000, 80% of whom live in off-campus housing, according to CoStar research. Union Square Apartments sits less than a mile away from BYU’s campus.

Author: Cara Smith-Tenta

Source: CoStar