SANGER, TX--Drever Capital Management has returned to making garden apartment buys, acquiring Trails of Sanger, a 98-percent occupied, 208-unit garden apartment community in Sanger from InterCapital Partners, GlobeSt.com has exclusively learned.

“While still seeking work force apartment portfolios, we're glad to make one-off buys,” Maxwell Drever, chairman of the 45-year-old Tiburon, CA-based real estate investment firm, told GlobeSt.com.

Drever says Trails of Sanger already has a positive cash flow.

Drever Capital's acquisition strategy targets properties aimed at renters with moderate, stable incomes including nurses, teachers and government employees, among others, who want up-market amenities and a leisure-oriented spa lifestyle.

“We had our construction team on-site the day after closing to begin work on our $1.2-million signature enhancement package,” Drever says.

This cosmetic renovation, already under way on the community that was built in 2003, will make it look like new construction, which would cost 45 percent more if were to develop it from the ground-up, he says.

Drever says DCM plans to acquire either value-add work force apartment portfolios or individual multifamily properties in secondary markets with close highway proximity, either cash-flowing or financially troubled.

“This is our sweet spot. We've been doing it for close to 50 years, have a reputation for expedited closings, and with our discretionary fund, we have cash to make low leverage buys.”

Brian O' Boyle Sr. and son, Brian O' Boyle Jr., with ARA, A Newmark Co.'s Dallas office, brokered the transaction for InterCapital.

“Drever Capital's knowledge of the Texas multifamily market runs deep and Maxwell Drever, having once been the largest landlord in Houston, has been on both sides of ARA Newmark-DCM transactions over the years and was a trusted business associates,” says O'Boyle Sr.

He added that Drever Capital also “enjoyed a favored buyer position with InterCapital because the seller had good experiences with them on a previous transaction and has great respect for the buyer and its principals.”

A prior relationship with lenders Pillar Finance and Fannie Mae also helped Drever Capital assume the existing Fannie Mae loan on Trails of Sanger, according to Darby Keele, asset manager for Cohen Financial LLC of Overland Park, KS, Fannie Mae's delegated underwriter on the debt.