What is a near certainty in brokers' circles is that the Phoenix has brought the highest per unit price in the region's year-to-date sales. Sources say only Atlanta-based Post Properties' 908-unit Post Shore in Las Colinas has brought more this year from a buyer, a deal that some insiders say reaped close to $70 million.

The 449-unit Phoenix is best known for its rise from the ashes of the historic art deco Dr. Pepper plant that kept a date with a wrecking ball despite a long and hard battle by preservationists. The luxury complex delivered last year, just two years after Phoenix-DP Ltd., a Dallas-based limited partnership led by J. Blake Pogue, bought the 15-acre Dr. Pepper property at the intersection of Greenville Avenue and Mockingbird Lane.

Dan Bryson, senior director of Dallas-based Holliday Fenoglio Fowler LP, brokered the sale. The Phoenix is now part of the diversified asset mix within the Principal Life Insurance Co.'s Real Estate Separate Account, a $1.4-billion, open-ended, commingled private equity retirement fund.