GlobeSt.com EXCLUSIVE: $165M Portfolio Returns to Market

The Alon Group, an Israeli oil and residential properties' conglomerate with a Dallas-based subsidiary, acquired the holdings from the Highlands Ranch, CO-headquartered REIT in October 2002. The seller of record is Metra United, a teaming of Alon and a Boca Raton, FL operating partner. The plan is to hold a couple San Antonio properties, but the rest in Texas must go. Will Balthrope, senior director of Cushman & Wakefield Inc.'s Multi-Housing Group, says the seller is exiting the sector because it's too management intensive in comparison to its distribution and office properties in New York and Florida, which are triple net-leased for the most part.

Balthrope tells GlobeSt.com that there is $120.4 million of assumable debt riding against the properties, mostly class B, with eight to 10 years left on loan terms at 6.15% fixed-rate interest. Bank of America in Charlotte, NC, is the lender. The assets, with occupancies running 90% to 92%, were built between 1983 and 1995. Prices range from $10.5 million to $42 million.

"There is a lot of interest in the package because the seller has set prices that are realistic," says Balthrope, who partners with senior director Don Ostroff. So far, there's been 50 requests for books. The call for offers will be made after Labor Day.

Balthrope, a multifamily circuit speaker, says now is the time to sell because the pendulum's beginning to swing toward a buyers' market. "Sellers are racing to get their properties on the market before interest rates rise and prices soften," he says. "I'm not saying the sky is falling, but I am saying buyers have so many choices that it will lead to having more control in the market. Buyers are just saying 'no' to overpriced deals."

The lone Dallas property is the 228-unit Preston Trace at 18331 Roehampton Dr. The Fort Worth assets, each with 248 units, are unit Hunters Ridge at 4850 River Ranch Blvd. and Southern Oaks at 5500 S. Hulen St. In Universal City, the roster has the 140-unit Cimarron City at 1950 Universal City Blvd. and 232-unit Peppermill at 2124 Universal City Blvd. The San Antonio mix has the 466-unit Sunset Canyon at 2170 Thousand Oaks Dr., 462-unit Ashley Oaks at 16400 Henderson Pass and 244-unit Kenton Place at 14650 Nacogdoches. The only class A holdings are the 596-unit Promontory Pointe at 4114 Medical Dr. in San Antonio, tagged at $42 million, and the 164-unit Grand Cypress at 453 N. Business Interstate 35 in nearby New Braunfels, priced at $11.5 million.