Buyer Adds 144 Units With Third Texas Buy

The upside plan for Jung Hsi is to upgrade exteriors and raise rents to market levels at 600 Greenhill Dr. development. Williamson County taxing authorities have the 19-year-old Crystal Creek, positioned on 6.43 acres, assessed at nearly $6.8 million. Comparable properties in the area have been selling for roughly $44,000 per unit.

Hsi acquired the 94%-leased Crystal Creek from a Houston-based partnership led by Venterra Realty Co. "It was one of the smallest properties in their portfolio," Rex Jones, director for Cushman & Wakefield of Texas Inc.'s Austin office, explains to GlobeSt.com. "They're trying to maintain only those over 200 units."

Jones says Hsi was one of a dozen investors from Texas, Oregon, California, Florida and New York placing offers on Crystal Creek. Its investment lure, he says, is location: a half-mile from Interstate 35, beside the new Texas State University campus and a half-mile south of IKEA and a new outlet mall. Hsi arranged financing and used 1031 exchange funds to make the close, according to Jones. And, he adds, the historically high occupancy rate also helped to boost the number of offers on the vintage property.

Hsi, who owns 480 apartments in Austin, got a class B complex with one- and two-bedroom units, averaging 670 sf. The average rent is $589. "It's just a little below market rent," Jones says. "With some exterior renovation, she thinks she can get a rent increase."