Chesterfield apartment complex The Bend at 4800 sells for $44M

Once known as Ivy Walk, The Bend at 4800 was built in the early 2000s. (Mike Platania photo)

A buyer from the Rocky Mountains has used a Chesterfield apartment complex as its entryway into the Richmond market. 

Tralee Affordable last month purchased The Bend at 4800, a 248-unit lower-income housing development, for $44 million. 

It’s the first deal in the Richmond area for Colorado-based Tralee, which invests exclusively in affordable housing complexes. 

Spanning around a dozen buildings at 4800 Burnt Oak Drive near the Iron Bridge Road-Chippenham Parkway interchange, The Bend offers units to households earning up to 60 percent of the area median income. 

Mike Kelly

Tralee’s purchase closed March 31, and the per-door sales price comes out to $177,400. The Bend is over 90 percent leased. Chesterfield County most recently assessed the property at $30.1 million.

Tralee president Mike Kelly said the 12-year-old firm has built a portfolio of around 17 complexes located in supply-constrained markets throughout the country. That strategy eventually led it to Richmond, and at The Bend, Kelly said the company is planning to deploy its usual plan of investing a few thousand dollars per door to improve the units and reduce turnover. 

“We basically decided that there’ll always be lots of competition on value-add deals where guys want to try to do flips…. We wanted to find a niche that wasn’t just coming in with hot money and trying to flip deals and be the smartest person around,” Kelly said. 

“We wanted to find a little niche that we could go ahead and try to exploit…and find something that makes life simple for everybody, and make it where turnover is mitigated, and we make money on reducing turnover.”

The Bend was built in the early 2000s and was formerly known as Ivy Walk. The seller in last month’s deal was an entity tied to New York-based firm Beachwold Residential, which had bought the complex in 2021 for $30 million, according to Chesterfield County property records. 

Kelly said Tralee typically holds onto its properties for around 10 years before looking to sell, and that it continues to look around the region for more deals. 

The sale of The Bend is the latest sizable apartment sale in Chesterfield. In late 2024, The Park at Salisbury and Commonwealth Apartments were sold, fetching a combined $138 million. Another complex about six miles up Chippenham from The Bend, The Ashley Park Apartment Homes, also recently sold for nearly $50 million.