Fort Worth's Hottest Market Rings Up $26.3M Sale

The latest to bank on the submarket's future is Equity Residential, which has spent close to the $26.3-million asking price for the 350-unit Montevista Apartments at 5350 Bryant Irvin Rd. The sale came eight days after Chicago-based Equity Residential lost out to a hometown rival, Henderson Global North America, for the 344-unit Heights of Cityview at 5270 Bryant Irvin Rd.

A field of 40 offers pushed the Heights' selling price relatively close to its asking price of nearly $24.8 million, Mark Stymiest of CB Richard Ellis Inc. in Dallas tells GlobeSt.com. Henderson acquired the Heights for a US pension fund adviser making its first buy in Fort Worth, reports J.P. Rachmaninoff, Henderson's acquisitions director. The crux of the deals is the desire to tap the inevitable potential of Lockheed Martin employees looking for places to live near their jobs.

Seller Archon Residential Inc. of Irving, TX did a one-off transaction with Henderson for the 22.7-acre Heights, just as it did a few weeks ago when Trivest Residential of Dallas spent more than $18 million for the 446-unit Cameron Creek positioned on 20 acres at 5209 Bryant Irvin Rd.

As for the Montevista, seller Embrey Partners Ltd. of San Antonio said to count it into the action if the CBRE team could get numbers like it was attracting for the Heights, Stymiest confides. "We had a lot of bridesmaids so we married them to the one next door," he says of the newly closed deal.

The complexes sit in a one-quarter mile stretch in what is proving to be Fort Worth's stellar market for 2002. Each deal is a direct offshoot of Lockheed Martin's ramp-up of the Joint Strike Fighter program and eventual production. In October 2001, Lockheed Martin got an $18.9-billion, 10-year engineering and manufacturing contract to deliver the JSFs. The contract carries a potential value of $200 billion to $400 billion.

Thus, multifamily and retail developers and owners alike are grabbing what they can get in the submarket. The hefty bidding has pushed selling prices above assessed valuations, according to Tarrant County Appraisal District numbers.

The Montevista, completed in 2000, was 90% occupied at sale time. The Heights, also completed in 2000, carried a mid-90% occupancy. And Cameron Creek, built in 1985, was 96% occupied.

In addition to Stymiest, the CBRE team in Dallas handling the sales included William Baxter and Dirk Goris, with the trio representing buyer and seller in the Montevista exchange. In the Heights sale, they worked the deal with the Atlanta duo of Malcolm McComb and Kevin Geiger, the assignment holders for Archon's multifamily disposition.