AmeriSouth Acquires 826-Unit SW Oak Cliff Complex

The 826-unit Parkwood Apartments, positioned on 43 acres, is the most recent to fall from the disposition roster. Situated at 3035 W. Pentagon Parkway in Southwest Oak Cliff, the holding is about 92% occupied. AmeriSouth XXV Ltd. is the buyer. The usual confidentiality pact bars release of the final selling price, but it originally came to market at $27 million.

In the past two years, Lewis has sold about 25 multifamily holdings in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex for the investment group. The parting businessmen acquired the bulk of the properties from the RTC. They owned Parkwood Apartments for a half dozen years, pumping some $3 million into upgrades from 1997-98. Closings are pending for a 250-unit complex in Dallas to a Canadian group and another estimated 250 units in Houston, under contract to a non-profit buyer, according to Lewis.

Parkwood Apartments once again is in for an upgrade. Lewis pegs the up and coming work, primarily cosmetic, will cost a couple million dollars at a property historically bearing a high 90% occupancy. Occupancy slipped post-Sept. 11, 2001 when many of Parkwood's Hispanic residents headed back across the border for a brief respite from the region's sagging job scene, he explains. Occupancy started to shift back into the 90% range in January and should be at its norm in 45 to 60 days, he predicts.

Buyer AmeriSouth, led by prominent Dallas businessman Ruel Hamilton, owns at least 25 other multifamily properties in the region. The deal, Lewis says, "couldn't have been done any better." AmeriSouth brokered its side of the deal.

Parkwood Apartments was developed in three phases from 1969 through 1973. Units average 932 sf in size and come in a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom designs.