Liberties West
Location: Northern Liberties, Philadelphia
Size: 174 Units
Project Type: Conversion of rental apartments to condominium / market repositioning
Ownership Structure: Wholly owned
Total Projected Investment: $12 million
Status: Complete
Liberties West Condominiums is a 174 unit gated, garden-style condominium complex located on the edge of the booming Northern Liberties neighborhood of Philadelphia. Under the previous owners, a non-profit housing organization, rents were delinquent for more than 75% of the units and the complex had fallen into disrepair. Iron Stone purchased the complex in 2005 and repositioned it as market rate condominiums.
Iron Stone invested more than $3 million in capital improvements to renovate the condos and the common areas, including new kitchens, hardwood floors, landscaping, lighting, an automatic gated entrance, parking, storage, laundry facilities and fencing to create a desirable living atmosphere. A new marketing program for the complex, which included changing the name from Penn Towne to Liberties West, attracted owners that wanted to live in Center City, but were priced out of neighboring markets like Northern Liberties.
Iron Stone decided to make the change from rental to for-sale condominium due to the strength of the condo market in Philadelphia at the time. Initial sales were very strong as the market was at its peak. With more than half of the units sold, however, the condominium market cooled dramatically and Iron Stone made the strategic decision to operate the remaining units as rental apartments. With greatly improved property management and judicious cutting of maintenance expenses, Iron Stone has leased up the rest of the complex and operates the rentals at a profit. We anticipate this project will yield a 4.2x return on equity.
http://philanet.com/~mccann/liberties_west/
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