Local Seller Bids Adios to Sector With 308-Unit, Class A Sale

The 6.9-acre Marquis at Park Central at 7900 Churchill Way in Dallas is the second multifamily property in the neighborhood to sell in less than three months and the second that the Austin-based CWS has picked up in roughly five months from M&M Properties of Fort Worth. For the seller, it's now time to say goodbye to the multifamily sector in North Texas.

Assessed at $21.8 million by Dallas County, the Marquis at Park Central was on the market in 2003, but pulled due to occupancy issues. With the rate hiked to 90%, M&M was about to bring it back to market when CWS stepped up with an offer.

"We accepted a pre-emptive offer without them going to the market," Chris LaPaul, president of LaPaul Partners in Dallas, tells GlobeSt.com about the all-cash sale. Occupancy, he says, was up to 90% due to a rally late in the year when rent was dropped slightly to reach a palatable number rather than add to concessions.

CWS' acquisitions director won't discuss the purchase of the 14th property for the Dallas/Fort Worth portfolio. LaPaul, teaming with VP John Swinney to close the sale, did confirm that the intent is to maintain the asset as a rental property rather than lob a condo conversion play.

The six-year-old Marquis at Park Central was built in 1999 by Dallas-based Windsor Residential Inc. at the corner of Coit Road and Churchill Way, the fourth complex in the Park Central office park. In December, Trammell Crow Residential sold one of the Marquis neighbors, the 490-unit Reserve at Park Central, to JPI for $90,000 per door. The complex, now the Jefferson at Park Central, was on the market for $47 million.

The Marquis at Park Central, with French-inspired Second Empire architecture, has 15 floor plans in one-, two- and three-bedroom units from 708 sf to 1,688 sf. The monthly rents range from $900 to $1,860. Concessions are running two months for a 13-month lease, LaPaul says, citing the near completion of the nearby High Five construction as yet another incentive for CWS' planned long-term hold.

In late October, CWS and M&M sat down at the closing table for the near $28.8-million trade of a 332-unit complex at 3702 Frankford Rd. Shortly after the deal closed for the Marquis at Frankford, the courtship began for the Gates of Normandie. M&M's co-general partner was Parsippany, NJ-based Prudential Real Estate Investors.

M&M brought its portfolio to market in 2003. The first to go was the 296-unit Andalusian Gates, which passed to a Southern California buyer.