Rimrock Devlin Dorms LLC partners Micah Linton and Wally Devlin said Wednesday their sale of the new Jacksonville University residence hall to a New York global investor frees up capital and allows them to do more deals.
New York investor W.P. Carey Inc., through Flipper (FL) LLC, bought the JU dorm north of the Arlington campus for $17.5 million on Jan. 8.
It bought the five-acre property from Dolphin Dorms LLC, whose manager is Rimrock Devlin Dorms LLC.
The deed was recorded Tuesday with the Duval County Clerk of Court.
W.P. Carey announced Thursday morning that CPA:17 – Global, one of its managed non-traded REITs, bought the building.
Zachary Pasanen, W.P. Carey vice president, said in a news release the company is attracted to assets in the student housing sector that address a supply-demand imbalance and offer long-term income generating investments.
W.P. Carey said JU is a highly regarded academic institution with increasing enrollment. It said the university has been named by U.S. News & World Report for more than 10 years as one of “America’s Best Colleges” in the South.
Between 1997 and 2015, total student enrollment increased 87.8 percent, representing a 3.56 percent compound annual growth rate, W.P. Carey said.
Also, it said the state-of-the-art residential hall is the first new freshman dormitory at JU since 1968. It includes high-tech amenities and modern features and is fully occupied.
W.P. Carey also said the hall was part of the first stage of a multiphase development for the riverfront property adjacent to JU.
Dolphin Dorms LLC, whose manager is Rimrock Devlin Dorms LLC, bought the land in July 2014 and developed the four-story, 274-bed North Hall as a three-wing, 70,000-square-foot project. First-year students moved in last fall.
Linton and Devlin said in an interview Wednesday they have a strong relationship with JU and hope to continue working with the institution.
Under the leadership of President Tim Cost, the university has been developing and redeveloping buildings on campus, buying adjacent property and working with the community to rejuvenate the aging Arlington area.
Linton said he has been in touch for years with W.P. Carey, which invests globally.
“Wally and I made a commitment to President Cost that whatever we did would be in JU’s best interest. W.P. Carey has a stellar reputation,” Linton said.
JU said it will continue to be the tenant in the residential hall and will administer the dorm as it does with its other residential halls, operating and maintaining the facility.
W.P. Carey is a global real estate investment trust. The company invests in commercial properties domestically and internationally. It earns revenue principally by leasing the properties it owns to single corporate tenants.
W.P Carey knows the Jacksonville market. Last summer, through CPA:18 – Global, it paid about $17 million, including acquisition fees, for the 88,000-square-foot Southpoint headquarters building for Acosta Inc., where Acosta continues to operate.
The investor also contributes to educational efforts. The private W. P. Carey Foundation says its primary mission is to support educational institutions with the larger goal of improving America’s competitiveness in the world.
It says the main focus of its support to schools, universities, lecture series, chairs and other programs is on the study of business and economics, as well as on admissions procedures, and college and career guidance.
Linton and Devlin have a master plan of what they want to do that requires capital, but they didn’t provide details.
One project might be apartments. Rimrock Devlin Development LLC recently bought about 7.3 acres in Southside for development of up to 260 apartments, although there are no immediate plans for a project.
Rimrock Devlin Development paid $2 million for the vacant property, at southeast A.C. Skinner Parkway and Salisbury Road, from Second Pioneer Corp. of Boca Raton
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