The Villas of Spring Creek in Plano is a prime example of investors' ongoing interest in the Dallas-Fort Worth multifamily market. The complex, situated on 16 acres, was marketed with an abutting 11 acres, a stipulation that in prior days could have scared off would-be buyers, Don Ostroff, first vice president for Grubb & Ellis Co. in Dallas, tells GlobeSt.com. In today's market, 16 private and institutional investors vied for the 93%-occupied complex. Sellers ING Realty Partners of New York City and TexCal Residential Partners, a West Coast partnership, were seeking $20 million for the strategically positioned property at the intersection of Coit Road and Spring Creek Parkway.
Ostroff's mum about the profile of buyer Parwood Apartments Inc., which closed the deal following a 60-day marketing period. Ostroff and Grubb & Ellis associate Will Balthrope marked their seventh class A sale in the past year with the closing.
Parwood hasn't set a construction timetable for the 11-acre second phase, entitled for another 162 units. The first phase, developed in 2000, is bringing an average rent of $975 per month for 944 sf, the average size unit in the high-end complex.
Ostroff says interest in top-end complexes has been particularly strong since the year kicked off, given a void in closings in fourth quarter 2001. Pent-up demand, regard for multifamily as a safe investment haven and money to spend this year are triggering the early 2002 activity. And, Ostroff says, it's quite clear that "Dallas is a place where people want to invest."
It's not just class A. Two class B properties in Dallas that the team's marketing have piqued interest from one end of the country to the other. More than 100 interested buyers have surfaced for Equity Residential's 800-unit Ridgetree, which came to market two weeks ago, and 70 for the 400-unit Cobblestone, put up for sale a week ago by its Canadian-based private capital group owner.
Interest in the Villas of Spring Creek, in part, also was driven by Plano's dwindling development sites. There are just five multi-housing sites left in the popular North Dallas suburb. "As you would expect, many of the buyers had a development arm in their company," Balthrope says, "and with no units under construction today in Plano, they were anxious to have this piece.
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