Gables' Latest Off-Market Move Gets Two Corners in Uptown

The Boca Raton, FL-based REIT has been one of Uptown's most active buyers. The Carlisle on the Creek Apartments, situated at 3104 and 3230 N. Hall St., traded for its redevelopment promise of a two-corner foothold at Hall and Carlisle streets, about three blocks from Gable's purchase of recent weeks, 2815 Carlisle St., and abutting the familiar "hole on Cole," recently bought by local developer FirstWorthing and equity partner, Greenway Investment Co. of Dallas. Insiders believe Gables and its new neighbors could be talking about a flip with ING Clarion poised to buy the REIT. For the buyout story, click here.

"We knew what Gables wanted so we went straight to them," Hank Glasgow Jr., principal in Perry Guest Co. of Dallas, tells GlobeSt.com. "It was strictly under cover."

SMI Realty of Newark, NJ, bought the 95%-leased Carlisle on the Creek in March 1994. Glasgow says the sale, which closed two days ago, clearly was tied to 18 months of a "buying and developing frenzy in Uptown." The Carlisle on the Creek is a class C in a class A location that ties up the northwest and northeast corners of the intersection.

"They recognized the activity in the area and they realized they could get a good price for it," Glasgow says. Buyer and seller first started talking about a year ago, but negotiations "went into high gear" in January, he says. The Perry Guest team included principals Nick Farris and Grant Guest.

"The building is nice enough that they can keep it and renovate it," Glasgow says. The long-range goal expressed throughout the talks, he says, was to hold as-is on the 38-year-old mix of one- and two-bedroom units until it's time for a redevelopment. That plan, though, could have changed with ING Clarion's buyout of the REIT.