BIRMINGHAM, Alabama –Jemison Flats, one of the pioneering downtown loft apartment and office projects that helped spur downtown redevelopment westward, has been sold for more than $6.3 million.
Rock Apartment Advisors worked with Auction.com to close the sale of Jemison Flats. The 58 lofts apartments are 98.28 percent occupied. The project also has 28,000 square feet of office space that is 72 percent occupied and a 200-space enclosed parking garage.
LNR Properties, a bank-owned entity that foreclosed on the property, sold it through Auction.com along with Rock. JF Hat LLC was the purchaser.
Courthouse records show the property sold for $6,326,250 and closed June 23. Officials confirnemd JF Hat LLC is an affiliate of LIV Development and LIV Apartment Partners.
LIV Development is developing the $30 million LIV Parkside apartment and retail project across from Birmingham Railroad Park.
In September, LIV Development sold the Blach’s Lofts for $3.2 million in a deal also brokered by Rock Apartment Advisors. That building, at 300 20th St. North, has 24 loft apartments and 5,000 square feet of commercial space in what was once Blach’s Department Store.
Ryan Griffin,
partner with LIV, said the company has plans to improve Jemison Flats.
“We plan to fully renovate the community, both common areas and interior units, while maintaining the historical integrity of the community,” he said. “The renovation plan will further cement Jemison as the market leading historical loft community and complement the downtown/Parkside gentrification.”
With occupancies consistently between 97 percent and 98 percent, Rock said the downtown apartment rental market is the best submarket in the Birmingham metro area and one of the best in the Southeast.
When the $10 million Jemison Flats renovation of the former Chamber of Commerce building was tackled by Corporate Realty more than a decade ago, the location at the southwest corner of First Avenue North and 19th Street made it the first significant loft project to venture west of 20th Street. Many more have followed and still more are planned.
Today, Jemison Flats is in a location surrounded by several developments and is near the Railroad Park and other projects.
“We received significant interest from buyers because of the location and the revitalization of downtown,” Joseph Holt, vice president of Rock, said in an interview. “The proximity to Railroad Park and Regions Field also was a selling point.”
Birmingham-based Rock, an affiliate of Harbert Realty, focuses exclusively on apartment brokerage services throughout the Southeast. It has brokered more than $1.8 billion in apartment deals since it started in 2003.