SEATTLE, WA – Bellwether Housing, King County, Washington s largest nonprofit affordable housing provider, has bought 213 affordable homes at two locations: The BLVD, a 136-unit apartment complex in Kent and The Marina Club, a 77-unit in Des Moines. This acquisition is part of Bellwether s strategy to preserve existing affordability levels in lower-cost rental housing in locations highly vulnerable to steep rent increases.
These acquisitions were made possible by the Amazon Housing Equity Fund, a $2 billion commitment to preserve and make more than 20,000 affordable housing units by offering low-rate loans and grants to housing partners, traditional and non-traditional public agencies, and minority-led organizations. The low-cost financing allows Bellwether to compete with commercial-rate buyers who would buy these units with the goal of significantly increasing existing rents.
Bellwether s CEO, Susan Boyd, clarified, The Amazon Housing Equity Fund could not have come at a better time. Our goal has been to preserve as much affordability in King County as we can before it s too late. Public funding sources are severely constrained and have not prioritized this kind of strategy. As we were preparing our hunt for low-cost capital, Amazon announced its Fund. We anticipate this tool will allow us to bring hundreds more units into permanent affordability and prevent hundreds of lower income families from being displaced from their homes.
We are so pleased to be a part of the solution by addressing housing shortages in our region, said Catherine Buell, Director of the Amazon Housing Equity Fund. By teaming up with organizations such as Bellwether Housing, we are able to help grow the housing stock for households making moderate- to low-incomes. These households may include teachers, transit workers and firefighters — people whose jobs may pay a modest income, but whose contributions are invaluable.
The Amazon Housing Equity Fund has made prior investments in Puget Sound including funding $185.5 million in low-rate loans and grants to King County Housing Authority to preserve affordability for 1,000 apartment homes and committing $100 million in low-rate funding to developers to help make and expedite the development of Sound Transit property offered for affordable housing. These latest commitments bring that figure to more than $310 million in loans and grants in the region to date.
Bellwether s preservation strategy has targeted South King County, where the development of light rail and other commercial growth are pushing rents up quicker than other parts of the region, and where immigrants, refugees and other lower income families are particularly vulnerable to displacement.
The financing for these acquisitions also included tax-exempt financing from CitiBank and equity investments from Bellwether Housing.

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MIAMI, FL – Lerner Enterprises of Rockville, Maryland has bought Motion at Dadeland, a 25-tale class A+ multifamily high-rise community comprised of 294 market-rate apartments and 8,246 SF of amenity-based retail, including a preschool slated to open Q4 2021. The building is adjacent to Dadeland North Metrorail Station in Miami, Florida. Lerner will also be the property and asset manager of Motion at Dadeland.
“We are excited to own and manage a market-leading asset and provide increased value to our residents in Florida,” said Melissa Balkin, Managing Director, Lerner Residential Florida.
Founded in 1952, Lerner is a developer, owner and manager of office, multifamily, retail and hospitality assets primarily in the greater Washington, DCregion but also in other markets such as New York City and Florida.
Lerner is the owner of the Washington Nationals Baseball Club, the 2019 World Series Champions. Lerner’s expertise in the Florida markets started with the Nationals’ 160-acre training facility at The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches in West Palm Beach.
“We are thrilled to add to our Florida portfolio with the acquisition of Motion at Dadeland. Lerner is aggressively pursuing multi-family assets across Florida, focused primarily on the tri-county regions of Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties. Motion will be a cornerstore asset in our portfolio for many years and we are pleased to complete our first transaction with KKR as a lender,” reported Michael L. Cohen, Vice President of Investments at Lerner.
Motion at Dadeland, a transit-oriented development, is located within a ½ mile of nearly 2 million square feet of office with nearly 12 million square feet across the Dadeland submarket. Motion is also across the street from Dadeland Station which is home to Target, Best Buy, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Bed Bath and Beyond, Michaels and PetSmart. The property is also walking distance from Dadeland Mall, which is the home of Tesla, Apple Store, Cheesecake Factory, Chick-Fil-A, LEGO, Coach, Disney Store, Macy’s Florida Flagship, JC Penney, Zara, Lacoste and Saks Fifth Avenue.
Lerner received a loan from capital managed by KKR to finance the acquisition of Motion at Dadeland.
Newmark’s South Florida office led by Avery Klann exclusively represented the seller, while JLL’s Rob Carey (Washington, DC office) and Ted Taylor (South Florida office) along with Newmark’s Debt and Structured Finance team of Kassi Saridakis (Washington, DC office) and Matt Williams (South Florida office) advised Lerner on the transaction.

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AUSTIN, TX – RockFarmer Properties, a privately held, fully integrated vertical development and investment firm based in New York City and Wildhorn Capital, an Austin, TX-based multifamily operator, announced the acquisition of Enclave at Waters Edge, a 184-residence multifamily development located at 12330 Metric Blvd in Austin, TX, for an undisclosed price.
This transaction marks RockFarmer Properties second venture into the Austin, TX, multifamily market – and marks the fourth acquisition made by RockFarmer s recently launched Opportunity Fund V. Previously, in July, 2021, the company bought SoNA Apartment Homes, a garden-style multi-family rental community in Austin, TX.
RockFarmer Properties plans additional acquisitions of value-add commercial and multi-family assets across the Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin and San Antonio, TX, markets. In the last 6 months, RockFarmer has bought or sold more than $250 million in assets nationwide.
With major tech companies opening or relocating offices in Austin, the city is experiencing meteoric growth. Austin s ample opportunities for employment attract people from across the country. We are bullish on value-add multifamily developments located in cities experiencing continued growth like Austin, said Brian Getzler, Executive Vice President and Head of Acquisitions at RockFarmer Properties.
Newmark Knight Frank represented the buyer and the seller in this transaction. The firm also helped secure financing for the acquisition on RockFarmer s behalf.
We are delighted to team up with Wildhorn Capital again – an incredible owner/operator in the Austin market – on the acquisition of Enclave at Waters Edge, said George Michelis, Principal of RockFarmer Properties. We look forward to continued success.
RockFarmer Properties plans to add significant value to Enclave at Waters Edge through timely unit renovations and enhancements to the community wide amenities and common areas of the property. To date, RockFarmer Properties has successfully executed the development, acquisition, renovation, repositioning and sale of more than 70 transformative residential and commercial properties across New York and the Sun Belt states totaling more than $2B.
Enclave at Waters Edge is a well-located rental community with a lot of upside potential. We find such properties to be brilliant investments, said John Petras, Principal of RockFarmer Properties. We plot to be an extremely active investor in value-add commercial and multifamily assets in the Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth and San Antonio Texas for the foreseeable future.

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