AUSTIN-Up against 11 other would-be buyers, ORIX Real Estate Capital Inc. has swooped in to close on the 224-unit Saddlecreek Apartments in southwest Austin. If the trade was made at the top of its submarket, the exchange was pushing $18 million at the closing table.
ORIX's final price is off limits, but the dynamics are such for the 10801 Old Mancha Rd. development that it surely came close to the comps, which are pushing into the high $70,000 per unit range. Saddlecreek's leverage is a 95%-leased, five-year-old, class A footprint in a high barrier to entry submarket and within two miles of the 425-acre, mixed-use Southpark Meadows along Interstate 35.
Mike Dallas, with a namesake firm in Austin, tells GlobeSt.com that the Chicago-based ORIX outplayed the competition for its ability to close and an all-cash offer. "I anticipated with wide exposure to the market that we'd have multiple offers in very short order," he explains. "It's a class A in an area with barriers to entry priced at or below replacement cost."
Saddlecreek, marketed for two months at $18.5 million, consists of one- and two-bedroom units averaging 856 sf. Rents range from $639 to $889 per month. At 92 cents per sf, Dallas says the rents are close to market or slightly above, but ORIX's upside is the bet on the future. He says Austin-area multifamily rents ticked up 8% last year. "I really don't see any reason for that not to continue over the course of the next year," he says.
Dallas represented the seller, a Houston architect acting as Saddle Creek Associates Ltd. Whitney Eledge of Austin was the closing attorney. Jennifer Rench and David Kozicki with Chicago Title Co.'s local office were the closing agents.
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