The 184-unit Valley Tree Apartments at 2513 Summertree Circle in North Arlington brought $6.5 million from buyer of record, Oakgate Apartment Ltd., led by Tony Waiss, general partner. Waiss tells GlobeSt.com that the 85%-occupied property's upside is tied to improving the bottom line by lowering expenses, part of which will be realized by sliding in its in-house management team, Quatre Foil Group of Plano.

The 18-year-old Valley Tree, sitting on close to 11.5 acres, is the only Mid-Cities complex in the Hall portfolio, 7,700 units in 30 properties brought to market in October 2002. Thomas Emerson Burns, senior investment adviser in Dallas for Phoenix-based Hendricks & Partners, says the offering is attracting high interest now that the holiday season is long gone.

An April 1 closing with a single buyer is penciled on the calendar for three complexes with 628 units in North Dallas, Burns confides. Another three properties in Albuquerque are ready to go under contract as is another in Dallas proper. Burns and Hendricks' Tom Warren, senior associate, are marketing the portfolio, all assets bought in the late 1970s and early 1980s by entrepreneurial investor, Craig Hall.

The Arlington property was bought with proceeds from a 96-unit sale in Plano and acquisition financing from the New York City-headquartered Lehman Brothers. Waiss says he realizes the class B property's cap rate is low, less than 8%. But the investment group, he says, "is very optimistic about the future of multifamily real estate. We felt the value of the property is there and with good management we can turn it around."

The Richmond, CA-based investment group is comprised of various partnerships, mostly California capital, that now owns 750 units in Dallas-Fort Worth, including the 348-unit Fairway Apartments about 1 1/2 miles east of Valley Tree. Burns and Warren were the sole brokers on the transaction.