Lennar Sells Empty Complex in West Fort Worth

Robert Helterbran with Pinnacle Realty's Dallas office tells GlobeSt.com that the class C asset at 8021 Calmont Ave., marketed at close to $1.4 million, will be turned into a class B property with a "roof-to-floor" renovation. Westview Terrace, assessed at $1.2 million, was brought to market last year after the Miami-based Lennar foreclosed, according to Helterbran. The asset sold for slightly less than $10,000 per unit, he says, adding another $8,000 to $10,000 will be spent on each apartment's upgrades.

The buyer has bought, repositioned and sold before in Dallas/Fort Worth, always one-off transactions. The latest purchase is a 38-year-old complex on 3.5 acres with a front-row seat along Interstate 30 and one mile from Carswell Air Force Base, the Bethesda, MD-based Lockheed Martin Corp.'s Fort Worth plant and Ridgmar Mall. "It's a good location. It just needed to be rehabbed and updated," Helterbran says. "There will be no problem in leasing it." The submarket's multifamily occupancy level has pushed above 92%.

Helterbran says Westview Terrace had a 30% occupancy when marketing began, but no leases were renewed so it could be emptied and readied for a full makeover. The mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom units, averaging 854 sf, will return to the market at 65 cents per sf to 70 cents per sf, he confides.

Helterbran says two other contracts fell out after investors worked up renovation numbers and the third cratered this summer when a storm damaged four roofs. "We just needed to get a buyer who would take the time and effort to rehab the property," he explains, adding leasing could begin by Thanksgiving.