Mark Hendricks and Ed Cummins III, both of the Houston office of Phoenix-based Hendricks & Partners, negotiated the sale of Kings Crossing and Kingwood Lakes. Hendricks tells GlobeSt.com that the properties' locations and large tracts in a wooded area surrounding a lake in Kingwood brought a good response from the marketplace. The setting combined with pent-up buyer demand drove 20 offers within 40 days of putting the properties on the market, says Hendricks.

The Kings Crossing is a 22-year-old, 390-unit complex on 33 acres at 3700 Kingwood Dr. The average rent is 80 cents per sf and average unit size, 838 sf.

Built in 1982, Kingwood Lakes consists of 404 units on 26.5 acres at 4545 Kingwood Dr. The average unit size is 940 sf, with monthly rent running 72 cents per sf.

Seller Berkshire Realty Holdings LP of Boston disposed of the properties as part of its normal overall exit strategy, according to Hendricks. Berkshire bought the complexes in 1994. Both are more than 96% leased, he says. Berkshire Realty currently owns 67 apartment communities, comprising 21,535 units, and fee manages seven assets for another 3,285 units in the US.

Hendricks says CNC Investments' plan is to renovate, to some degree, exterior and interiors, but did not know how much money is to be invested into the improvements. The plan is for tenants to start paying for water usage via a conversion program that's now ramping up. According to Apartment Data Services, 46% of 197,297 units in the Houston area are charging tenants for water usage through the program. Buyer CNC Investments now owns in excess of 17,000 multifamily units in Texas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, New Mexico and Oklahoma.