KPREIT joins forces with American investors on property deal
Published:Friday | July 23, 2021 | 12:07 AM
Real estate investment trust Kingston Properties Limited, also known as KPREIT, has pooled resources with two American companies to acquire a residential complex in Atlanta, Georgia, for US$15.5 million.
Through subsidiary Kingston Properties Miami LLC, KPREIT has partnered with Apex Development Group LLC and Treevita Holdings LLC to form joint venture company Polaris at Camp Creek Partners LLC through which they will spend another US$2.5 million over two years on renovations to the 155-unit multi-family property located at 2800 Camp Creek Parkway in Atlanta.
Under the joint venture agreement signed Tuesday, July 20, Kingston Properties will hold 40 per cent of Polaris. The seller of the building being acquired through Polaris was not disclosed.
The property deal is KPREIT’s first in Georgia and its first investment outside of Florida in the United States. The real estate company, which remains in acquisition mode as it works towards the goal of one million square feet of owned or managed property in its portfolio by 2023, otherwise owns assets in Jamaica and Cayman Islands. It also recently bought into an American private equity fund that invests in office space in the South Florida area.
Kingston Properties CEO Kevin Richards says the building at Camp Creek, which incorporates one, two and three-bedroom residences, is around 90 per cent tenanted, and that the renovations would be timed for minimum disruptions and dislocations.
“Some of the leases will expire in due course. We will time the renovations with the expirations before putting them back on the market,” he said.
The partners are targeting other acquisitions in various US states, Richards said.
The Atlanta deal is the first of four transactions that Kingston Properties told shareholders were pending this year at their annual general meeting earlier this month.
KPREIT finances its transactions with debt and equity – the Atlanta building, for example, was 75 per cent debt and 25 per cent equity from the Polaris partners – and the company currently has a $700-million financing facility from Victoria Mutual on which it is yet to draw on, plus US$2.3 million in cash to back its purchases.
KPREIT is also due to announce an additional public offering soon, the prospectus for which is still being finalised for submission to the Financial Services Commission.