California investors with a penchant for Central Iowa apartment buildings have paid a little more than $2 million to AIB College of Business for three buildings with a total of 60 furnished one-bedroom apartments along the school’s western border on Southwest 23rd Street.

The deal closed Dec. 1, said Chris Costa, chairman of the AIB board of trustees, and the purchase price was $2.25 million.

That figure could include the value of the furnishings and other items that would not be reflected in the declaration of value on the warranty deed. The deed had not been filed at the time today’s CRE Weekly was published.

Rick Krause, the CBRE|Hubbell Commercial broker who represented the buyers, said the declaration of value will show a purchase price of $2.05 million.

The investment group is led by Jim Sands of Orange County, Calif. The group has been active in the Central Iowa real estate market since 2006 and focuses on apartment buildings.

Iowa Bell Terrace LLC is the purchaser and has signed a short-term lease for one of the buildings to the Ted Cruz presidential campaign. The lease will run through the Iowa caucuses and is for 24 apartment units.

The college, which plans to donate its campus to the University of Iowa at the end of the current session on June 30, put the three buildings up for sale in August after the Iowa Board of Regents agreed to the sale.

Under an agreement, AIB will advance any remaining proceeds from the sale to the Board of Regents when the controlling body of the state’s three public universities takes possession of the remaining property.

AIB spokeswoman Jane Schorer Meisner said students are housed at Fenton Hall, near the AIB administration building, and that the college has reserved the right to sell an additional four apartment buildings that are now vacant.

Under the agreement with the regents, AIB can put the four remaining apartments on the market if officials decide they need extra cash to continue operating through the end of the current, final school year.

Again, any proceeds left after that possible sale would be turned over to the Board of Regents.

The apartments along Southwest 23rd Street were listed by Iowa Realty Commercial broker John Knapp.

AIB initially asked $3 million for the apartments and the nearly 4 acres on which they are located. However, Costa said the exact number of acres was adjusted during the sales process. A portion of the parcel could be developed, he said. In addition, the buyers were allowed to lease apartments before they took ownership of the buildings.

Krause said the new owners have leased seven apartments and have short-term leases for another 24 units. Those leases are set to expire in February. He would not confirm that the Cruz campaign had leased the 24 units.

AIB announced earlier this year that it would close in 2016 after operating for 95 years, first as a two-year school that initially focused on secretarial, accounting and business administration courses. Beginning in 2007, AIB offered four-year degrees and revived an athletic program that had been dormant for 50 years.

Including the nearly 4 acres that sold this week, the AIB campus has occupied about 20 acres of land at the southwest corner of Fleur Drive and Bell Avenue.