Just Sold: Seattle buyer pays $25.5 million for affordable rentals.

Byline: Anne Bretts

Editor's note: "Just Sold" is a Finance & Commerce feature based on certificates of real estate value recently filed for commercial transactions and significant residential transactions in Twin Cities counties. Additional details in the transactions come from Plat Research, the Minnesota Secretary of State's Office, company documents, online real estate listings, F&C archives, CoStar and other research. Some purchase prices and per-unit calculations have been rounded. Full prices are available on the CRVs posted here.

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Veteran affordable apartment developer and owner Jon Dickerson, founder and owner of Minneapolis-based Diversified Equities Corp., is liquidating his portfolio and shifting his investments to commercial properties.

Entities related to Dickerson have closed on two sales totaling $25.5 million to entities related to Vitus, a Seattle-based affordable housing provider planning major renovations to both properties. The sales include $9.75 million for the 54-unit Holmes Greenway Housing apartments at 114 SE Fifth St. and $15.75 million for Oak Park Village, with 100 units in 10 buildings at 7267 Oak Park Village Drive.

Holmes Housing Partners LP acquired the Holmes-Greenway building from Central Housing Associates LLLP.

The reason for the shift is simple.

"I've been doing this for 50 years," said Dickerson, who still has his office in the northeast Minneapolis neighborhood where he grew up.

Dickerson isn't retiring. It's just that apartment ownership is very demanding, so he's looking at more passive investments.

Dickerson launched his company in 1971. He has completed 14 housing projects involving more than 2,000 apartments, townhomes and condominiums around the metro area, as well as commercial space, according to the company's website.

He developed Oak Park Village in 1978. He developed the Holmes Greenway Housing building in 1983 on a site that once housed a car dealership.

Abe Roberts, Christopher Collins and Evan Miller of the Minneapolis office of Marcus & Millichap marketed the properties and represented Dickerson in the sales.

The current sales mean the only property left in his portfolio is one of his first projects, the 71-unit Stonehouse Square Apartments at 215 NE Broadway St. in Minneapolis. He created the apartments in 1983 by redeveloping a historic but vacant nursing home complex. That property is under contract with another buyer and slated to close in the next few months, Dickerson...

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