New England Investor Makes First Atlanta Apartment Buy With 2,000-Unit Goal

BisNow
December 16, 2020
By Jarred Schenke

A Boston multifamily investor has made its first foray into Atlanta and plans to buy up metro units over the next few years.

Northland Investment Corp. purchased Novel Perimeter, a 320-unit luxury apartment complex off Glenridge Drive overlooking Georgia 400 in Sandy Springs, for $90.5M earlier this month, according to Databank, which tracks real estate transactions.

Crescent Communities developed Novel Perimeter in 2016 and sold it to Northland, which owns more than 80 apartment and commercial properties in the South, Southeast and Northeast.

It has been eyeing the Atlanta market for two years before this purchase, Northland Chief Investment Officer Matthew Gottesdiener said. The firm hopes to acquire at least 2,000 units in the metro area over the next few years, including high-rise luxury apartments inside the city.

“In Tampa, Denver, Orlando, we own downtown vertical assets,” Gottesdiener said. “And that will be in our future in Atlanta, too.” Northland targets stabilized Class-A apartment assets as well as value-add properties that require a significant capital infusion to reposition, he said. He didn’t identify any other Metro Atlanta properties the firm is currently considering, but said that ground-up development — which it mainly does in the Northeast — is also a possibility in Atlanta.

Given Northland’s typical hold time of at least 20 years, the firm sees Atlanta as a promising growth engine, especially with its burgeoning technology sector that Gottesdiener likened to Austin 15 years ago. Austin was recently ranked as the sixth-most-populous city with tech talent in the U.S. by CBRE in its 2020 Tech Talent Report, behind New York and Toronto. Atlanta was ranked ninth.

“The increasing number of graduates choosing to stay in town to me is a powerful and encouraging indication,” he said.