A 186-unit apartment complex in Seattle's Bitter Lake neighborhood just changed hands for $37.75 million, a price tag that landed 28% below what it sold for back in 2019. The buyer, Seattle-based Security Properties, picked up Cooper Apartments at roughly $203,000 per unit, a figure the firm says beat every comparable apartment sale recorded in Seattle, Shoreline, Lynnwood and Edmonds since June 2025.
According to Security Properties, the deal marks the 13th market-rate acquisition for its Multifamily Fund 7, financed with additional private equity raised from the firm's investor network. That capital raise reportedly came together in a matter of weeks. Mark Bates, Security Properties' chief investment officer, said the previous owner had already completed major property work and renovated most unit interiors, leaving the firm with what he called a basis that would be difficult to replicate elsewhere in the market, as citybiz reported.
Built in 1993, the five-story Cooper Apartments sits at 13530 Linden Ave. N., about 15 minutes north of downtown Seattle. The property picked up more than $6.8 million in capital improvements between 2020 and 2024, including a full roof replacement, fresh exterior paint, and a renovation and modernization of its amenity spaces. Of its 186 units, 179 have been fully or partially renovated, and residents now have access to a courtyard with fire pits and grills, a clubhouse, fitness center, coworking space, dog park and controlled-access parking.
How the Price Stacks Up Against Recent Sales
The comparable sales Security Properties points to ranged from about $270,000 to $426,000 per unit since June 2025, which puts Cooper's $203,000-per-unit price well under the floor of that range. The property last sold in 2019 for $52.75 million — an entity tied to RISE Properties was separately reported by The Registry to have sold the property this time for $37.8 million, a figure slightly higher than the $37.75 million Security Properties cited. Per IREI, the purchase price works out to less than half of the estimated cost to build a comparable community today.
CBRE brokered the transaction, per the prnewswire release. It's the latest in a string of moves for Security Properties locally; the firm previously acquired a five-property Seattle-area apartment portfolio for $400.8 million and picked up Langara in Issaquah earlier this year. Since its founding, Security Properties and its partners have acquired or developed 111,881 residential units across 676 assets, representing more than $11 billion in investment.
A Cooling Development Pipeline Shapes the Math
Part of what's driving investor interest in existing buildings like Cooper is a construction slowdown across the area. Apartment deliveries across North Seattle, Lynnwood and Shoreline peaked at 2,626 units in 2024, but are forecast to fall to roughly 500 units annually in 2026 and 2027, and to zero in 2028 and 2029, according to CBRE data cited in the release. Security Properties itself has pulled back from new development — the firm wrapped up its most recent project in late 2024 and scrapped a proposed $200 million Wedgwood development earlier this year, according to the Puget Sound Business Journal.
That pullback comes even as Seattle's broader multifamily market has been tightening. The region closed the second quarter of 2026 with a 95.4% occupancy rate, up from 94.9% in the first quarter, while positive net absorption grew to 4,034 units, according to CBRE. Average rent across Seattle ended that quarter at $2,250 per unit per month. By the third quarter, vacancy had dropped to 6.6% from 7.0% a year earlier, and the number of units under construction citywide fell to 19,059, down 6.9% from the prior year, per the Kidder Mathews Seattle Multifamily Market Report.
Those citywide figures put Cooper's per-unit price in sharp relief. Elsewhere in the region during the third quarter of 2026, the 524-unit Griffis North Creek traded for $372,137 per unit, while Island Square commanded $668,085 per unit — the highest price per unit among the quarter's significant multifamily sales, according to the same Kidder Mathews report. Against that backdrop, Cooper's roughly $203,000-per-unit price stands out as a steep discount for a renovated, nearly fully occupied North Seattle community.
