Written by David Bracken | TRIANGLE NEWS & OBSERVER

The year in Triangle commercial real estate is ending much the way it started - with a bunch of apartment deals.

The Preiss Company, the Raleigh-based firm that specializes in student housing, paid $26.5 million for The College Inn, a 121-unit complex on the south side of Western Boulevard near N.C. State University, according to Wake County property records. The seller was the N.C. State Student Aid Association, also known as the Wolfpack Club.

The other deal involved the Mariner's Crossing apartments in North Raleigh, which sold for $29.95 million to Sillman Enterprises, a real estate firm based in Birmingham, Mich., according to property records.

The 306-unit complex was built in 1995.It's located at the intersection of Creedmoor and Millbrook roads.The seller was LaSalle Investment Management, which paid $23.2 million for the property in 1997.

Mariner's Crossing was 97 percent occupied in October, according to data from the Triangle Apartment Association and Karnes Research.

The heavy volume of apartment deals this year is being driven by strong fundamentals in the apartment sector, which has benefited from the turmoil in the single-family housing sector and a general lack of new apartment construction during the economic downturn.

That will change soon, as developers have begun construction on a number of new projects and more are scheduled to break ground next year.

The apartment vacancy rate in the Triangle was 6 percent in September, down from 6.7 percent a year ago, according to data from the TAA and Karnes.