494-Unit Turnaround Plan Begins

WAK Management's Al Rablais tells GlobeSt.com that the footprint is "a large enough presence that we think we can make a difference" in the Kingsley Heights section of Lake Highlands. Rablais is focused on top-to-bottom, inside-out makeovers of the 288-unit Autumn Ridge Apartments at 9607 Wickersham Rd. and 206-unit Summer Glen at 9624 Rolling Rock Lane, where occupancy was hovering at 80% when the Lewisville company took the reins about three weeks ago. Construction. which began immediately, will wrap up in the fall.

Aside from physical changes, Rablais says "new criteria" will be put in place for prospective residents in a re-tenanting plan for about 60% of the units. The crux of the plan, he says, is "to ensure that the tenant profile is upgraded, crime disappears and all residents have quiet, peaceful and lovely surroundings in which to live."

The complexes were on the market for most of 2003, with Autumn Ridge's listing price resting at $11.5 million and Summer Glen's at $6 million. "It was an uphill battle all the way," says Thomas Burns, a senior investment adviser in the Dallas office for Phoenix-based Hendricks & Partners. Assisting in the sale was J. Michael Lewis, also in Hendricks' Dallas office. Linda McMahon, senior vice president for community development for JPMorgan Chase Bank packaged a bridge loan to close the deal with the seller of record, Summer Glen 2000-CKPI, a limited liability company from Irving, TX, which bought properties in October 2002. Each complex, built in the early 1970s, is assessed at close to $3.9 million by the Dallas Central Appraisal District.