L.A. Buyer Shells Out About $4M for Class C Complex

Buyer of record, Sunset Ridge LLC of Los Angeles, paid close to the $4 million ask for the 118-unit Wilshire Manor Apartments at 1400 Sagebrush Trail in Euless. The asset had "zero deferred maintenance" despite its age, 35 years for the original section and expansions in 1971 and 1973, says Tom Burns in Hendricks & Partners' Dallas office.

The L.A. buyer's first acquisition in the state is a fully leased complex with rents averaging 95 cents per sf. Burns credits the high monthly return to the seller's longstanding practice to allow tenants to pay rent as they received paychecks whether it was weekly, biweekly or monthly with a easy-pay plan and even offered an early-bird discount. "It really pumped up the income on this deal," he explains of a listing that attracted five would-be buyers.

Start to finish, the asset changed hands in six months. Burns, who single-handedly brokered the transaction, tells GlobeSt.com that the $1 million of exchange capital from a multifamily sale in L.A. put the buyer at the head of the pack of the offers on the table. He says the deal closed with additional equity and a 10-year loan through Citibank's Dallas office in a package bundled by Steve Sieling with Dallas-based BMC Capital Inc.

The seller bought the class C complex in the mid-1980s. Burns says the depreciation was practically exhausted so the plan was to sell and exchange the gain for another type of investment, possibly oil or gas.

Wilshire Manor, situated five miles from Bell Helicopter's Fort Worth plant, has four two-story buildings on less than an acre and units averaging 689 sf. There are four two-bedroom townhouses and the balance are one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments.Burns says the seller's management practices kept occupancy historically high, with many tenants in place for the long term. And, he adds, the property clearly benefits from a neighboring church, which offers free day-care services as well as groceries for low-income families. "It's unbelievable how this church supported this apartment complex," he says. The new owner hired Devonshire Management Co. of Dallas to take the reins.