Denver Investor Begins Texas Retreat With 138-Unit Sale

Diamond Loch Apartments at 6100 Glenview Dr. in North Richland Hills made a slight gain in occupancy during the hold due to concessions and a strategy, which is gaining in popularity, to shave rent by a few dollars to offset other incentives, Scott Lamontagne with Marcus & Millichap in Dallas tells GlobeSt.com. The buyer is a father and son limited partnership from Northern California, which used 1031 exchange money from a multifamily sale in Southern California and assumed the $3.2-million balance on a Fannie Mae loan due in 2008 to get the deed, according to Lamontagne.

Lamontagne says three offers surfaced for the asset, which came to market and was under contract before the seller decided to hang sale tags on the rest of his Dallas/Fort Worth portfolio. He says offers are now rolling for the others: the 106-unit Elmwood Garden at 4049 Samuel Blvd. in Mesquite and 332-unit Ridgmar Square at 2508 Ridgmar Blvd., a local landmark built by the Smothers Brothers. Elmwood is tagged at $6.8 million and Ridgmar Square at $12.5 million.

With the sale of Diamond Loch, the local management shifts to an affiliate company of the buyer's broker, Steve Fithian of Vision Realty in Fort Worth. "They've got a pretty interesting management strategy planned for the property," Lamontagne says. The go-forward plan focuses on addressing some deferred maintenance and aggressively marketing the complex, he adds.

The 27-year-old Diamond Loch Apartments, situated on 7.9 acres backing up to Diamond Oaks Country Club, has 50 one-bedroom, 51 two-bedroom and 37 three-bedroom units. The monthly rent average is $697 versus $705 in August 2003 when the seller acquired it. Occupancy is in the low 90%, up slightly from its last sale, Lamontagne says.