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A Northern Virginia-based apartment developer kicked off a project in a small Sun Belt city that has seen construction rocketing to new heights. 

Bonaventure is building Attain at Bradford in Huntsville, Alabama, about 3.5 miles directly west of NASA’s Marshal Space Flight Center and the Army’s Redstone Arsenal where the FBI is building two campuses. The 350-unit luxury apartment development is expected to open by the end of September 2024. 

“Delivering this project advances our growth strategy in the Southeast, which will continue to be a major focus for our company in the years ahead,” Dwight Dunton, Bonaventure’s founder and CEO, said in a statement. 

The firm owns and manages more than 6,000 apartment units in the mid-Atlantic and the Southeast. 

With its latest development, Bonaventure enters a market that has experienced significant apartment construction over the past two years as national developers have flocked to Rocket City, so nicknamed because of the Army missile and space programs that grew out of cotton fields after World War II. 

Roughly 6,000 units were under construction before Bonaventure broke ground, which is about 17.1% of the overall number of existing units, according to CoStar data. 

Construction peaked at a record 7,240 units in the third quarter. So far this quarter, 1,158 units have opened, and another 1,180 are expected to open in the first quarter next year. 

Huntsville has been on a steady job growth trajectory because of the defense and space industries on top of traditional manufacturing. The arsenal companies employ about 38,000 people. The FBI’s operations are expected to grow from about 1,200 workers now to 5,200 over the next five years. 

Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Dynetics and Norththrop Grumman are among the biggest names there. Billionaire Jeff Bezos’ rocket company Blue Origin opened a plant in Huntsville two years ago and employs 400. A joint venture between Toyota and Mazda opened a $2.3 billion plant in September last year and eventually expects to employ 1,700. 

National apartment developers have taken note. National student housing developer and investor Landmark Properties chose the Huntsville area for its first single-family rental development that isn’t for students. Northern Virginia-based Middleburg Communities opened the 290-unit Mosbey Bridge Street in Hunstville in June. Atlanta-based Novare Group is building a 290-unit property next to Town Madison, an urban development in Huntsville suburb Madison. 

Nicol Investment, based in Nashville, is developing more apartments in a planned mixed-used development inside Cummings Research Park. It opened a 334-unit apartment property near Town Madison two years ago. 

For the Record 

Birmingham, Alabama-based Doster Construction is the general contractor for Attain at Bradford. 

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ALEXANDRIA, Va.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Bonaventure, an integrated alternative asset manager focused on the development, construction, and property management of innovative lifestyle multifamily communities in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions, today hosted the ground-breaking of Attain at Bradford Creek located at 556 Martin Road in Huntsville, Alabama to celebrate entering a new Southeastern market. The 350-unit Class A multifamily community, ideally located 15 miles from downtown Huntsville in the Madison/Airport submarket, will deliver much-needed additional high-quality housing to the community.

Birmingham, Alabama-based Doster Construction is leading the onsite construction of Attain at Bradford Creek and Bonaventure is overseeing the property’s development and management. Attain at Bradford Creek’s first units will be delivered in March of 2024, with the full project expected to be completed by the end of September 2024.

“The Bonaventure team is excited to bring our decades of experience in building best-in-class multifamily communities to Huntsville,” said Dwight Dunton, founder and CEO of Bonaventure. “We are thrilled to partner with Doster to deliver an exceptional rental housing property that will bring luxury living to a market with high demand for quality housing. Delivering this project advances our growth strategy in the Southeast, which will continue to be a major focus for our company in the years ahead.”

Residents of Attain at Bradford Creek will enjoy not only the finest in interior design and state-of-the-art appliances, but also close proximity to major transportation routes and many of the city’s major employers including Boeing, Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Space & Rocket Center. The 22-acre community in the Madison/Airport Submarket is one of Huntsville’s most desirable areas, known for its excellent school system and accessibility to job and retail centers across the metro.

“Doster Construction is excited to partner with Bonaventure, a leading multi-family developer, on their first project in Huntsville,” said Conn Crabtree, Doster Vice President and Huntsville Division Manager. “Our teams share a commitment to building quality facilities, and we are extremely pleased to add Attain at Bradford Creek to our growing portfolio of work in North Alabama.”

Attain at Bradford Creek will include a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom units with square footage ranging from 839 to 1,375 SF per unit, totaling 359,050 SF. The community will feature a mix of high-end amenities including a pond and dog park, Amazon lockers and clubhouse with a state-of-the-art pool and fitness center.

Alexandria, Virginia-based Bonaventure has delivered exceptional affordable, luxury and senior living communities across the Mid-Atlantic region since 1999 and is currently expanding throughout the Southeast.

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It’s been a tough year for many in real estate: Record inflation, rising interest rates and lingering malaise in the nation’s return-to-the-office movement have complicated the work of getting deals done.

Still, real estate professionals tend to be an optimistic lot, and many found reason to give thanks this holiday season, often for the things that helped them navigate the year’s economic turbulence.

 

In Dallas, Mohr Partners CEO Robert Shibuya said he is glad he heeded the keen advice of the company’s chief financial officer.

 

“I’m thankful, as we close out this year and prepare for an uncertain real estate market in 2023, that I listened to my CFO Sohail Hamirani, who advised me last year to pay off all of our corporate debt, and put aside a war chest of cash to take advantage of the opportunities which will come our way once the markets recover,” Shibuya said in a text message.

 

John Alba, chief investment officer for Winthrop Capital Partners in Jericho, New York, is thankful that mezzanine debt, a slice of the so-called capital stack that sits between a building’s equity and the amount of money owed to creditors, “is once again a double-digit business, which more accurately reflects the level of lender risk,” he said in an email.

 

In Las Vegas, Logic Commercial Real Estate broker Natalie Wainwright is appreciative for the cooperation and creativity among landlords and tenants who come together to complete deals during uncertain times. Wainwright said she’s also thankful for the wave of companies looking to move to new states, particularly Nevada.

 

“I’ve never been busier,” she said in a text message. “The exodus out of California has led to more calls and leads through LinkedIn than the team can handle. And I’m not complaining lol.”

 

This Thanksgiving is extra special for Wainwright because she has a new business partner who “knows me inside and out,” she said. It’s her brother Vince Wainwright, a Navy veteran who joined her group after serving as a recruiter for the aerospace industry.

 

“We’ve gotten 3 new requirements this week alone,” she wrote last week. “He’s really excited, but I want him to understand this demand is bizarre and his success his first year will be tough to be beat every year.”

 

Michael McGuinness, CEO of NAIOP New Jersey, said in an email he’s thankful for the continued investment in his state “despite the economic challenges facing not only our nation but the entire world — challenges arising from the pandemic, war in Ukraine and climate change.”

 

Trevor Adler, a New York-based partner at the law firm Stroock, said he’s “grateful to be in an industry that enables me to work with people who care — about our city, about the environment, about diversity, about giving back and about doing the right thing.” Adler works on deals across the office, retail, coworking, nonprofit and education sectors both in New York and nationwide.

 

The return to the office this year “has been a positive experience for many that has spurred [commercial real estate] transactions in an extremely challenging market,” he said in an email.

 

Joe Harney, founder of Reliance Real Estate Advisors in the San Francisco Bay Area, expressed gratitude to the people he counts on to get jobs done.

 

“With the well-published layoffs in the Bay Area, I am thankful and blessed to have dedicated, loyal contractors willing to work around the clock to complete projects for my clients!” Harney said in an email.

 

Dwight Dunton, CEO of Bonaventure, an Alexandria, Virginia-based alternative asset manager focused on multifamily properties, is grateful that his prognostication about interest rates was right and that the firm is benefiting from it.

 

“I’m thankful that I have finally been proven right after 20 years of predicting that interest rates would finally rise … which is why we have been conservative and used fixed rate long-term debt,” Dunton said in an email.

 

Matt Garrison, CEO of Chicago-based developer R2, is thankful his firm maintained relatively low leverage even in boom times, before rising interest rates slowed the pace of deals and decreased property values.

 

“It can be painful to structure deals like that in a good market because you’re leaving money on the table, but the long-term, prudent deal structures allow you to have staying power,” Garrison said in an interview. R2 is now looking at buying opportunities amid economic uncertainty while some firms tread water, he said.

 

“Office buildings in the [downtown Chicago] Loop are trading at or below their debt,” Garrison said. “We’re seeing some of the same things with hotels. We’re even seeing prices move on apartment buildings. We’re seeing opportunities we haven’t seen in years, and we think there will be more.”

 

In Austin, Texas, Sabot Development Managing Partner Jim Young said he is is thankful that his firm secured construction financing and got two apartment complexes underway “before capital markets & interest rates went sideways.”

 

“I’m also very thankful for the tight knit relationships that tough times reveal as broker, bankers, developers, and vendors put their heads together to find ways to accomplish more with less,” Young wrote in an email.

 

Eric Teusink, an Atlanta attorney who represents investors and lenders in multifamily, office and retail property sales, said he is grateful he no longer has to be glued to Elon Musk’s Twitter app.

 

“I am thankful that the election is over and that the election in Georgia is almost other so that I can stop incessantly refreshing my Twitter feed in the hope that it will give me answers as to the fate of the republic,” Teusink said in an email. “Instead, I want to solely focus on the needs of my law firm and our clients.” 

 

In Hollywood, California, celebrity Realtor and president and founder of The Oppenheim Group Jason Oppenheim reflected on all that he is grateful for.

 

“Family and friends, No. 1. My health. My girlfriend. My dogs. Success. The shows. But I think I’d have to go with family and friends with what I’m most thankful for,” Oppenheim, whose TV shows include Netflix’s “Selling Sunset,” said in an interview. “I wish I took more time to be thankful. Sometimes I just run through the motions and I don’t take time for that.”

 

Back in Dallas, Ran Holman, a Newmark executive vice president and its Texas market leader, said he is thankful to be a part of a brokerage with the “discipline and forethought to recognize that there are better days ahead and that we can use this time to prepare.”

 

“I got into the business in the late 80s, in an ebb tide. Cycles happen and will continue to, and while no two are the same, some aspects are universal — that what we can control is how we respond,” Holman said in an email. “At Newmark, we plan to use this time to sharpen our swords and continue to prioritize attracting the best of the best talent.”

 

CoStar News reporters Katie Burke, Candace Carlisle, Andria Cheng, Randy Drummer, Mark Heschmeyer, Richard Lawson, Linda Moss, Ryan Ori, Andy Peters, Parimal Rohit and Jack Witthaus contributed to this story.

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Up until a few months ago, it appeared that multifamily had entered a golden age. Rents were rising, deals were closing and forecasters saw little difficulty in the medium term. To be sure, the asset class is still a strong one but with the rise in the cost of debt, the threat of a possible recession and asset pricing that has become muddled, some uncertainty has been injected into the landscape. For that reason, we give our kudos to the men, women, teams and companies that are navigating this environment. Careful judgments must be made about underwriting, forecasting the ability of tenants to pay higher rents and, for developers, the ongoing difficulties with labor and supply chains. We have little doubt that the recipients we selected for our annual multifamily influencers are up for the challenge.

INDIVIDUALS

DWIGHT DUNTON

Dwight Dunton founded Bonaventure in 1999 with the goal of forming a multifamily real estate company focused on its employees, residents, vendors, partners and investors. Today, Bonaventure has grown to become an integrated alternative asset management firm and one of the nation’s largest developers of rental housing properties. The company’s 400 employees continue to operate with the core values that Dunton outlined when he launched the company: growth, attitude, impact, collaboration, accountability and reputation. Dunton employs a unique approach to problem-solving and has a tenacity toward accomplishing goals, no matter how difficult. His approach to building a high-performing, vertically-integrated multifamily development, investment and management platform has resulted in Bonaventure managing more than $1.5 billion in assets. The firm also currently manages more than 6,000 apartment units across 31 communities primarily in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions, and it is poised for continued growth with a strong development and acquisition pipeline. As CEO, Dunton oversees the strategic direction and culture of the enterprise, he helps the team identify problems that others may not be able to foresee and he works alongside everyone to find a solution. In addition, Dunton is CEO of Bonaventure’s private non-traded REIT, which launched in September 2021. Dunton is notably proud of two standout development projects, including the sale of Arbordale, which was built and leased during the pandemic, and breaking ground on Attain at Spotsylvania Towne Centre in partnership with Cafaro in Fredericksburg, VA.

 

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Bonaventure has completed its purchase of Pinnacle and Magnolia Chase Apartments, two luxury multifamily communities located in Hampton and Virginia Beach, Va., respectively. Bonaventure acquired ownership of the properties in two separate UPREIT transactions, which were negotiated for an undisclosed amount.

Pinnacle Apartments was built in 2016 and is located at 200 Freeman Drive, in Hampton. The community hosts a five building, 296-unit mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom offerings totaling 282,382 square feet, according to Yardi Matrix data. Community amenities include a fitness center, business center, clubhouse, and swimming pool.

Magnolia Chase Apartments is located at 5700 Magnolia Chase Way, and hosts a 10-building, 230,280-square-foot garden-style arrangement. The buildings themselves are divided into one-, two- and three-bedroom units, complete with luxury finishes and amenities. The community’s features include a fitness center, playground and club house, connected through landscaped courtyards.

Both communities are situated close to the heart of the Hampton Roads metro, within 15 miles of Newport News, Norfolk, Chesapeake and Virginia Beach, with nearby highway access for each.

 

BONAVENTURE’S OTHER LUXURY VENTURES

The acquisition of the two communities is part of Bonaventure’s expansion of its luxury development and investment presence in Virginia, having begun construction on two luxury housing projects in Fredericksburg: the second phase of its Palmer’s Creek development, a 200-unit garden-style community, and its recent groundbreaking of Attain at Spotsylvania Town Centre, a 271-unit project.

The larger Hampton Roads submarket remains steady in its growth, having experienced $4 billion in transactions and $490 million in multifamily investment activity over the second quarter of 2022, according to a report from Newmark from the same period. Despite a slight decrease in its occupancy rate, the overall percentage is above the national average at 97.2, the report shows.

Understanding the purchase of the community in this context, Dwight Dunton, founder & CEO of Bonaventure said in prepared remarks these acquisitions not only align with the firm’s Mid-Atlantic growth strategy but further demonstrate Bonaventure’s unique ability to engineer deals that offer superior flexibility and tax-advantaged benefits to partners.

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