"We had to go hard with a significant amount of earnest money," Ruel M. Hamilton, AmeriSouth president, tells GlobeSt.com of the behind-the-scenes deal making that won the face-off for the 39-building Garden House complex at 2500 E. Meadows Blvd.
The deal marks AmeriSouth's first acquisition this year in an ongoing portfolio building to add about 2,000 units per year as it has done for the last two years.
John Brownlee of Holliday Fenoglio Fowler LP in Dallas arranged a dual-pronged loan for acquisition and rehab through GE Capital Real Estate, headquartered in Stamford, Ct. Hamilton says the financing is a non-recourse, floating-rate loan with a three-year term.
Occupancy at sale time was 85%, but that's marked for change as the Dallas-based AmeriSouth fine-tunes the plan that will bring Meridian Commercial of Dallas on site to start interior and exterior upgrades, including landscaping for a property with three swimming pools. The work will start in a month.
A Los Angeles-based limited partnership was the seller of the 16.3-acre development, built in 1971. Hamilton says the property stirred a lot of interest because it was so well-maintained, coming with a brand-new, state-of-the-art mechanical system.
Units average 819 sf, with a median rent of $600 per month. Hamilton says the upside lies in a rent boost to 85 cents per sf, when the upgrades are done, and a conversion from a utility allowance to an all-bills paid rate.
Jeff Ratliff, executive vice president for AmeriSouth Real Estate Services Inc., represented the firm. Chris Miller and Sam Hunsacker of Hunsacker Properties in Orange County negotiated for the seller of the West Mesquite asset.
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