The company now owns and operates nine communities in the market, Connor said in an announcement. None of the company’s previous Columbus acquisitions was as long in the making as River Oaks, the company added.
“This is a property we’ve tried to acquire for eight years,” Connor Group managing partner Larry Connor said in a statement. “We first looked at it in 2004 and we’ve been interested ever since. Why? It’s a great property in a unique submarket.”
River Oaks, built in 1998, is on Dublin Road between Hilliard and Upper Arlington.
The Connor Group purchased the 24-acre foreclosed property from Wells Fargo Bank.
Connor said when he first became acquainted with the Columbus apartment market, he identified its five “crown jewels.”
“You have The Meridian, Arbors of Watermark and River Oaks, which we all now own,” he said. “And you have The Quarry and Marble Cliff Commons. So we have three of the five.”
Founded in 1991, the Connor Group is building a $15 million, 39,000-square-foot headquarters at the Dayton-Wright Brothers Airport near the Interstate 75-Austin Boulevard interchange. Specializing in high-end apartment communities, the company owns more than $1.3 billion in assets and owns and operates about 16,000 units.