MacArthur Apartments To Be Renovated

04.2023

MacArthur Apartments, some of the last truly affordable housing available in Bellevue, was recently sold for about $4.5 million to a Varina-based real estate investor whose portfolio includes other rental properties in Richmond metro area. The property includes 36 one-bedroom apartment units, and a total of 42 parking spaces, which are as rare as hen’s teeth on the MacArthur Avenue retail strip in the heart of Bellevue.

The new owner (who asked not to be identified) plans extensive exterior and interior renovations to the apartment complex, which was built more than 50 years ago. “I plan on giving the property a facelift on the front with new windows and roof, and painting the brick and installing new siding,” he says.

Interior spaces will also be upraded. “There will be new flooring and new paint,” he says.  “We’ll also be sprucing up what’s inside, maybe with new cabinets, granite counter tops, new appliances, and stuff like that.” 

The price tag on the exterior improvements alone will easily top $140,000, he says. 

Currently the apartments there rent for between $600 and $700 a month. “I am going to improve the apartments and, of course, increase the rents,” says the new owner. “I’m not quite sure what the rent increase will be; that will be judged on how much renovations will take place on the property.”

Tenants will be required to fill out a background check and a credit application, he says. “And their debt to income ratio’s going to have to match current rental rates,” he adds. “But I want to be as fair as I can [with the current tenants].”