Alex Bensahel, the director of the Investment Sales Division for the Mid-Atlantic Group of Eastern Union, has arranged the $42-million sale of Portabello Apartments, a 254-unit multifamily complex located in Oxon Hill, MD in the Washington, DC metropolitan area.
The Mid-Atlantic Group is based in the Bethesda, MD office of Eastern Union, a national commercial real estate firm that provides both capital markets advisory services and financing services.
Mr. Bensahel, who joined the firm just under two years ago, advanced the deal unusually quickly: he succeeded in putting the off-market transaction under contract within twelve days of having provided a full packet of transaction documents to the buyer.
According to CoStar, the price of the transaction set a new record as the highest price per door of any multifamily property sale in the history of Oxon Hill.
The Investment Sales Division is now in the process of selling properties valued at a total of $150 million in the tri-state region representing Washington, DC, Maryland and Northern Virginia. Mr. Bensahel’s rapidly expanding team is primarily focused upon multifamily assets and ground-up development projects.
Mr. Bensahel gave a special acknowledgement to two colleagues in the firm’s Mid-Atlantic office: senior managing director Marc Tropp and managing director David Merkin.
“To establish longevity in the market, those of us at Eastern Union abide by a certain set of principles: honesty, transparency and accountability,” said Mr. Bensahel. “We’ve been growing exponentially, and there’s no better way to expand than to work collaboratively with partners like Marc Tropp and David Merkin. We benefit by sharing a singular level of teamwork and cooperation.”
The success of the Oxon Hill transaction, Mr. Bensahel said, was also attributable to Eastern Union’s market knowledge, along with the company’s financial and underwriting capabilities.
“Eastern Union was able to leverage our deep connections within the region, combined with our company’s national database of investors,” said Mr. Bensahel. “This powerful combination of resources enabled us to generate enormous interest in this transaction.”
“Concluding a sale of this magnitude requires a keen understanding of investment market dynamics, and that’s the kind of know-how Alex Bensahel brings to the table,” said Ira Zlotowitz, Eastern Union’s president and co-founder. “And Alex closed this deal with remarkable speed. Eastern Union has high expectations for his future in this specialized and sophisticated market space.”
“With the help of my Eastern Union colleagues in the Mid-Atlantic office, we were able to swiftly close this sale on behalf of our client,” said Mr. Bensahel. “With the company’s continued support and encouragement, we’re hopeful about delivering new closings in the months to come.”
About Eastern Union
Founded in 2001, Eastern Union is a national commercial real estate firm that provides both capital markets advisory services and financing services. It employs more than 125 real estate professionals and closes an average of $5 billion in transactions annually.
Eastern Union, headquartered in New York, closes transactions of all sizes across the United States. In addition to its investment sales transactions, the firm secures financing for all asset types. Transactions — which can include multi-state and multi-site portfolios — encompass both conventional and structured financing. In 2020, Eastern Union’s Multi-Family Group reset market pricing by offering a quarter-point fee — with a minimum fee of $15,000 and no back-end fees — for refinancing properties backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Capital introductions are handled through Eastern Union’s affiliate, Eastern Equity Advisors.
Eastern Union’s free eCALC app instantly helps investors value and underwrite deals.
For more information, visit www.easternunion.com.
