This week's $10.5 million sale of the Huntington Athletic Club Apartments in Morrisville wasn't the biggest Triangle apartment deal to close this month.
In another sign that buyers and sellers are finding some common ground, the 292-unit Lenox @ Patterson Place Apartments in Durham was bought by The Connor Group, an Ohio real estate company, on Dec. 1 for just over $20 million.
The price was 11 percent less than the seller, Equity Residential, a Chicago-based real estate investment trust, paid for the property in February 2006.
The sales price on the deed was $19,085,000, but market insiders say The Connor Group also prepaid an existing loan of about $1 million.
Lenox @ Patterson Place was built in 1999. Just 5 percent of its units were vacant in September, according to data from the Triangle Apartment Association and Karnes Research.
Equity Residential, one of the nation's biggest REITs, has been selling pieces of its Triangle portfolio over the last 18 months. In July, Equity sold the 374-unit Ashley Park at Brier Creek for $39 million, or 5 percent more than what the REIT paid in March 2005.
The Lenox deal is a sign of how the market continues to cool. Switzenbaum & Associates, a Philadelphia real estate company, bought Ashley Park in July $104,000 per unit. The Connor Group, by comparison, paid about $69,000 per unit for Lenox @ Patterson Place.
The Connor Group also owns Carrington Apartments and Wakefield Glen in Raleigh and Waterford Apartments in Morrisville.
CB Richard Ellis represented Equity in the sale.
Business reporter David Bracken came to the N&O in 2004. He covers commercial and residential real estate. Contact David at 919-829-4548 or 
