Jeff Petrillo and Beth Estock acquired the historic property from Paul Breglio et al in Connecticut. The former elementary school carried an asking price of $1.5 million.

David Butler, senior vice president of the investment sales group at the Houston office of Boston-based Colliers International, represented the seller. He tells GlobeSt.com that the deal was a 1031 exchange in which the seller diverted proceeds to a Connecticut holding. Butler, a 1031 specialist in the region, says the seller's strategy was to secure an investment closer to its homeport.

The William B. Travis Apartments represents a very stable investment, maintaining a 990% to 95% occupancy even in lean years, says Butler. The class B apartments currently are 100% leased.

The complex is a classic adaptive reuse project, having been built about 50 years ago as an elementary school. In 1985, the closed school was bought and converted into an apartment complex. There are 36 units in the main building and another 24 equally split between two supplemental buildings.

Butler says each apartment still boasts the long windows and high ceilings found in old school houses. His clients bought the property from a bank between 1987 and 1988.