Courtesy / Vitalius Real Estate Group
The seller’s father built 119 Morning St. as an apartment building in the 1920s.
December 2, 2021
Two Eastern Prom apartment buildings go for $7.6M
Courtesy / Vitalius Real Estate Group
The arrows points to two apartment buildings comprising 40 units and a parking lot that sold for $7.6 million.
Two well-kept apartment buildings and a parking lot on Portland’s Eastern Promenade sold for $7.6 million after decades of being in the same family.
Diane Perlin sold 246 Eastern Promenade and 119 Morning St. to an undisclosed buyer. Brit Vitalius and Chris Sullivan of Vitalius Real Estate Group and John Graham of John Graham Real Estate brokered the transaction.
The sites were 246 Eastern Promenade, which consists of 12 residential units and a parking lot, and 119 Morning St., with 28 residential units.
“It’s a pretty a unique property,” said Vitalius who, with Sullivan, represented the sellers.
Vitalius had high praise for the sellers as out-of-state landlords who live in New York City.
“They’re amazing landlords. Their properties are in immaculate condition,” he said. “They know all their tenants by name. Their tenants have stayed for years.”
The parking lot goes with the 246 Eastern Promenade property but is shared by both, he noted.
“It’s kind of unique to find two big buildings with a parking lot,” he said.
Both buildings are fully tenanted, he added. Both were built for residential rentals with straightforward layouts.
“But some have incredible water views,” he added.
Rent restriction has implications
The properties were on the market without a list price for a couple of months.
“We showed to local investors and wound up with about 10 offers,” he said.
That reflects trends of multiple offers far outpacing supply due to demand from in-state and out-of-state buyers for apartment buildings.
But Portland’s new rent control and Green New Deal laws are hurting sellers, said Vitalius. That’s because rents at both buildings are under market and yet the new law restricts allowable increases, he said.
And development of the parking lot is also restricted.
Taken together, the new laws had the effect of decreasing the sale price, he said.
“The business community should know that at least a couple of million dollars in value was lost,” he said. “This is where we saw real-world implications.”
Vitalius estimated the properties could have gone for over $10 million without the restrictions.
It’s the people
Diane Perlin said her father and uncle constructed the Morning Street building, and possibly the Eastern Promenade building, in the 1920s.
Courtesy / The Perlin Family
Diane and Mark Perlin.
She and her family lived in the Morning Street building when she was growing up.
“I went to school across the street and we stayed there until I was in high school, when we moved.”
The properties remained in her family until the recent sale.
“It’s a family-owned, family-run business,” she said. “My mother did the rents. My father was handy and he helped fix things. I do remember how lucky I was to live there and have the Eastern Promenade as a beautiful backyard.”
The Perlins live in New York but they traveled just about every month to take care of the properties.
“I rented the apartments myself, so we knew all the tenants from the minute they moved in,” she said.
The couple decided to sell as they got older and it became more difficult to make the trips and run the buildings. They have a summer home in Old Orchard Beach and will continue to visit Portland.
“We had absolutely lovely tenants. Many of them have been there for 12 years with one more than 20 years,” she said. “And what happened is some would start in a studio and then go to a one-bedroom. Sometimes they’d get married or have a significant other and would move to a bigger apartment. So we had a lot of long-term tenants and we really got to know them very well.”
She added, “Sometimes I am asked, ‘Do you miss the buildings?’ I tell them it’s not the buildings I miss. It’s the people.”
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