A $3.7-million refinancing of the 144-unit Plaza Apartments at 412 Ralph St. on the western side of Fort Worth is part of the strategy for getting the under-contract properties to the closing table. Late last week, the Dallas-based AmeriSouth finessed a $5.5-million refinancing for a 202-unit complex in the Pleasant Grove section of Dallas.

The latest deal delivered a 10-year loan, with 30-year amortization, and a 5.65% interest rate, Ruel M. Hamilton, AmeriSouth president, tells GlobeSt.com. John Brownlee of Holliday Fenoglio Fowler LP, based in Dallas, arranged the financing through Nomura Bank Inc. of New York City.

AmeriSouth acquired the 34-year-old complex in the White Settlement section of Fort Worth in January 2002 in a purchase that proved insightful since the property is across the street from the Lockheed Martin plant, now going full steam with a ticket to prosperity as a result of a multi-million-dollar federal contract to build Joint Strike Fighters. The trickledown effect is demand in and around the factory, with the Plaza Apartments boasting one of the higher occupancies, 95%, in the region.

Hamilton says $500,000 went into rehabbing the complex in the past year. The upside, he confides, came with a rent increase of about $75 per month to bring the complex closer to market levels with $620 per month or 75 cents per sf. Units average 823 sf.