Just Sold: Weber pays $31.5M for old, new rental properties.

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.

Veteran Minneapolis apartment owner Scott Weber has closed out 2018 with two acquisitions totaling $31.5 million.

Weber paid $13.5 million for the Laurel at West End, a 66-unit building at 5610 Laurel Ave. in Golden Valley. A Weber entity, 32nd & Bryant LLC, closed Nov. 30 on the acquisition from Laurel Estates Apartments LLC, according to a certificate of real estate value released Dec. 20. The seller is an entity of KRC Apartments, a division of Fridley-based Kleinman Realty Co.

Weber confirmed the acquisition this week, along with his $18 million purchase of The Whit, a newly completed 74-unit building at 2201 Blaisdell Ave. in Minneapolis. In that sale, which closed Nov. 8, a Weber entity named 2338 LLC bought The Whit from 2201 Blaisdell Ave LLC, an entity related to its developer, Minneapolis-basedYellow Tree. The certificate of real estate value was released Wednesday.

"They are both high-end, well-built projects," said Weber in a brief email interview. Minneapolis-based Mann Cos. is managing both properties.

The price for the Laurel works out to $204,545 per unit, while the price for The Whit works out to $243,243 per unit.

The average sales price per unit for apartments in the Twin Cities metro area is $132,416, according to the Finance & Commerce Apartment Sales Tracker at finance-commerce.com. The tracker has recorded the sale of 49,164 apartment units since Aug. 31, 2011.

The Laurel is a three-story apartment building just east of Xenia Avenue and a half-mile north of the West End retail, office and apartment district along Interstate 394 and the border of Minneapolis and Golden Valley.

The Laurel was a class C property, built in 1979, but has been renovated to include new cabinetry, granite countertops, a new fitness center and upgraded club room and common areas. The building has one studio, 30 one-bedroom units, 34 two-bedroom units and one three-bedroom unit, ranging from 988 to 1,535 square...