PB Bell Development Pipeline Revealed

PB Bell is moving forward on two new Phoenix area apartment projects. It's just one of the many developers and investors grabbing hold of this hot market (you need oven mitts to do deals here), which is why we're thrilled to be holding our Multifamily & The Condo Revolution event at the Omni Montelucia Scottsdale on Sept. 30.

PB Bell president Chapin Bell, who'll be speaking at the event, tells us about his firm's next moves in Phoenix (just hopefully not from this elevation... we're scared of heights). In Glendale, it has a site under contract for a 286-unit complex. The firm also plans to develop a 200-unit luxury project off 7th Avenue in the Melrose District (we're banking on it being named Melrose Place). The pipeline will only get bigger: Chapin tells us he's aggressively pursuing more acquisitions.

The projects, including Aspera in Glendale (above), come on the heels of PB Bell's big buy here last month: More than 2,700 units in metro Phoenix in a JV with NY-based Stonecutter (which we reported here). It's evidence that PB Bell sees Phoenix as a place to be in the future. “We feel very strongly, at least over the next five years,” Chapin says. “You've got economic improvements, demographic trends that favor apartments, and a development pipeline that is not becoming out of balance based upon absorption expectations.”

But Chapin says that as more capital floods Phoenix looking for deals, value-add plays—like the Laguna Village complex above that was part of the Standard Phoenix Fund acquisition—are harder to find. “You're buying at a pretty aggressive price,” he says. And he says he believes that there are 25 to 50 bps built in for interest rates to go up, while cap rates (5.5%) will remain low. Don't miss even more multifamily trends and great networking—register for our event today.