Investor demand for suburban workforce housing has remained strong throughout the coronavirus pandemic, with the latest deal closing for nearly 1,000 units in Northern Virginia.

A joint venture of Foulger-Pratt and Bridge Investment Group acquired two Woodbridge apartment communities totaling 963 units from The Hylton Group, Bisnow has learned.

Ideal Realty Group brokered the sale, and Berkadia arranged the acquisition financing, a loan with Freddie Mac of more than $90M.

The parties declined to disclose the sale price. But a comparable deal, the July sale of the Potomac Vista apartments in Woodbridge, traded for $200K/unit, a price that would put this latest sale over the $150M mark.

The properties, the Dale Forest and Brightwood Forest apartments, are made up of three-story, garden-style buildings. The Hylton Group, a Virginia-based homebuilder founded in 1947, built the communities in five phases between 1976 and 1988.

Foulger-Pratt Vice President of Acquisitions Joe Clauser said the partnership was drawn to the assets because they are affordable, workforce housing with an opportunity to increase rents by upgrading the properties.

“The rents are by far the lowest rents that exist in the Woodbridge submarket by many hundreds of dollars,” Clauser said. “We saw an opportunity to go in and add value by bringing in more of an institutional management, push rents to market through unit renovations and adding common area amenities.”