A real estate investment firm based in Connecticut bought student apartments near University of North Carolina Wilmington recently in a $34.2 million deal, a deed recorded in New Hanover County shows.  

Realco Capital Partners purchased Carolina Cove, a 228-unit, 600-bed apartment community at the corner of Randall Parkway and South Kerr Avenue, for $150,000 per unit or $57,000 per bed.

That’s the second highest per-unit and per-bed sale price for a student housing project in Wilmington, said Richard Cotton, a broker and managing director of Multifamily Realty Advisors.

Cotton was not involved in the Carolina Cove transaction but studies the Wilmington and Triangle apartment markets, compiling quarterly and yearly reports on sales and apartment development.

Efforts to reach a representative of Realco Capital Partners were not immediately successful this week. The former owner of Carolina Cove, which was built in 2013, was Bradley Family Investors of Roanoke, Virginia, according to the deed.

The highest sale price for student housing in the Wilmington area was paid for Camden Forest, on Lullwater Drive at Greenway Avenue, which sold in December 2013 for $163,462 per unit or $64,394 per bed, according to records compiled by Cotton, the seller’s broker in the Camden Forest deal. 

Of the 2,802 apartments completed in Wilmington from 2013 to 2015, 760 were student housing, according to the first-quarter 2016 report from Multifamily Realty Advisors.

Aspen Heights, a student housing community with 400 beds in duplexes and four-bedroom cottages, is currently under construction in the 300 block of South Kerr Avenue near UNCW.