Marwaha adds Petersburg apartments to portfolio

Henrico County-based real estate investment and management company Marwaha Investments purchased a 34-unit apartment building across the street from its other properties in Petersburg and intends to rebrand it as part of Dunlop Street Lofts.

The nearly 35,000-square-foot building, located at 310 N. Dunlop St., has apartments between 600 and 1,000 square feet. Marwaha, which bought the property for $3.1 million from an investor in Virginia Beach, plans to renovate the apartments into Class A properties. The work will completed in the next 60 to 75 days, including improving the drainage system to prevent flooding in lower-level apartments; the roof has already been replaced. The building is currently 83% occupied.

Tom Rosman, Ryan Rilee and Justin Sledd of One South Commercial represented Marwaha in the deal.

The acquisition is part of a larger plan for Marwaha.

In January 2023, Marwaha Investments purchased several buildings including Dunlop Street Lofts at 214 Dunlop St., Union Street Lofts, Market Street Lofts and South Street Lofts for $17 million, from RREAF Holdings, a Texas real estate investment trust. The building at 214 Dunlop St. has 64 units between 500 square feet and 1,200 square feet each, ranging from studios to one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments.

“Our plan has been to increase the operational efficiency of the building and providing comfortable and Class A apartments to our residents,” Gagan Marwaha, principal of Marwaha Investments, told Virginia Business. “We have spent [$500,000] on deferred maintenance such as roofs, HVAC, landscaping, updating some of the apartments with Class A finishes, lighting [and] updating [the] security system, elevator and sprinkler system.”

Renovations to 214 Dunlop St. were completed in July 2023.

Marwaha has increased occupancy from 66% to 97% as of Jan. 5 and has plans to expand the property by acquiring a 1.5-acre adjacent parcel at the corner of Dunlop and Commerce streets and converting it into a community part for its residents. It will have a dog park, children’s park, grills and open areas and will be accessible to all 10 buildings in Petersburg, Marwaha said.