Foundation Eyes Redevelopment Op for Intown Buy

Bank of America's Real Estate Services group packaged the multi-million-dollar deal on behalf of the 47-year-old foundation known for its deep-pocketed giving to local organizations and universities. The sale/leaseback keeps Park Place Motors in its longtime home until a Lemmon Avenue location is ready to occupy and rolls three parcels, primed for redevelopment, into the charitable foundation's control. The buyer was asked to join in the transaction by Park City Presbyterian Church, which placed a contract on the property in spring 2003. The church has yet to close on the balance of the block, including the hard corner at Oak Lawn Avenue and Newton Court. Word on the street is that the Caruth Foundation channeled the purchase through its Hillcrest Foundation, which donates to Texas organizations committed to the advancement of education, promotion of health and relief of poverty.

"It was too big of a real estate deal for them so we took part of it down," Pamela A. Spadaro, vice president of the Private Bank at Bank of America's real estate services group, tells GlobeSt.com. Though she's not talking price, she did say "it's a significant transaction" and one of, if not the, largest deal that the group's completed in the past year on behalf of trust and agency clients.

Spadaro says the buyer has started analyzing the redevelopment prospects although Park Place Motors, led by Kenneth Schnitzer, is locked into a four-year lease with a one-year termination notice. The acquisition is an assembly of 2.3 acres with a 64,479-sf showroom and service center at 4023 Oak Lawn Ave.; a 27,000-sf tract with a four-story parking garage at 4222 Avondale Ave.; and a 1,736-sf structure on an 18,016-sf parcel on the hard corner of Avondale and Oak Lawn avenues. The properties' assessments exceed $8 million, with the selling price well in excess of the Dallas County appraisals.

Spadaro says the redevelopment opportunities will focus on office and retail. But, she says, there is ample time to decide the direction given the sale/leaseback requirements. The acquisition is one of the largest and deepest tracts available in Turtle Creek. She says the purchase is purely an investment that provided "the opportunity for diversification, income stream and capital appreciation" to the high-profile foundation and subsidiary.