A local real estate investment company bought an apartment complex off Wilshire Boulevard in Wilmington this week for $3.4 million, brokers said.

Completed in 1983, Quail Forest Apartments at 608 Montclair Drive is comprised of six two-story buildings with a total of 48 units. "The property has been well maintained and has consistently maintained a very high level of occupancy over the years," said Richard Cotton, broker and managing director of Multifamily Realty Advisors.

Cotton represented Kayser Enterprises Two LLC, the seller, in the transaction. Patrick Kayser said Thursday that the death of his father, Chris Kayser, in 2013, along with the Kayser family's aim to invest more in real estate in Portland, Oregon, led to the sale of Quail Forest. Before Chris Kayser's wife, Judy Kayser, moved back to Portland after her husband died, the couple lived in Wilmington, where they had amassed real estate holdings that included the apartments and small residential properties, Patrick Kayser said. 

He said thanks to Cotton, the listing for Quail Forest received a lot of interest, including offers from investors in New York City, Los Angeles, Illinois, Raleigh and Fayetteville.

"We definitely felt like we had the all-star team on our side," Kayser said of Cotton and his contact network in the multifamily real estate industry.

Hansen Matthews, partner in Maus, Warwick, Matthews & Co., represented buyer Quail Forest LLC. Apartments are "red hot," Matthews said, in terms of the selling market. "I was so fortunate we were able to find this and secure it for him," he said of the buyer. "We could sell five more just like it. It's just a good, safe investment. You never risk losing all your tenants at one time."

A number of high-dollar apartment sales have taken place in the Wilmington area recently, with more than $110 million in sales so far this year. Matthews said the apartment market niche has a lot of specific benefits going for it, including "fairly stable vacancy factors, and it's very, very predictable as far as expenses and things like that."

The Kayser family was pleased with the return on their investment, Patrick Kayser said.

"We sold at the highest end of what we thought would be realistically possible, so we're very, very happy with how that worked out," he said.

Morris Property Management & Maintenance had been managing Quail Forest on behalf of the Kayser family and was retained as property manager for the new owner, Cotton said.