Employing the Hartex foresight for opportunity, Rene Campos has started Eureka Holdings, a Dallas-based hotel operating group that has one asset in hand and is looking for more both inside and outside Texas, says Mark Winnette, senior broker for Metropolitan Capital Advisors of Dallas. He has just finessed the group's first loan, $4.7 million, for the acquisition and retrofitting of the motel at 6101 Hillcrest. Its positioning next to the SMU campus was the motivation for closing the deal. Hibernia Bank provided the 24-month, floating-rate financing.

"Rene Campos is a very astute real estate investor with a 'contrarian' view of things," Winnette tells GlobeSt.com. Campos was part of a trio that parlayed acquisitions from the RTC and savings and loan debacle into a multi-million-dollar hierarchy and then sold the operation in 1999. Hartex's final holding was just sold in June.

This time out, Campos is using his real estate savvy to mine the fields in and around university campuses. "He sees that as a niche market," says Winnette. Campos and crew are looking for "relatively small-size properties next to a good-size university," Winnette explains. "There's no direct competition for this. To them, it looks like a very significant opportunity."

The Hillcrest Hotel as the flagship product will go from a run-of-the-mill, 38-year-old budget property to a high-tech market entry with all the bells and whistles of a New York City venue. The glitz and glamour, including flat screen TVs, will set the design for the hotel branding, says Scott Lynn, Metropolitan Capital's principal.