331-Unit Turtle Creek Passes to CalSTRS Fund

DALLAS-Eyeing a seven-year hold, GID Investment Advisers and CalSTRS have won the deed to their first Texas property for a fund with $800 million of untapped buying power. The first deed to fall, but not the last for the state, is the 331-unit Turtle Creek Villas, a $45 million-assessed trophy in Uptown.

Thad Palmer, GID's director of multifamily investments and vice president of acquisitions, tells GlobeSt.com that another $5,000 to $10,000 per unit will be invested into upgrades for the 95%-leased landmark at 2217 Ivan St. He says the JV joined into the chase for the 14-story building because "we thought we had a core investment with a little value add or repositioning opportunity."

CB Richard Ellis senior vice presidents Mark Stymiest and William J. Baxter Jr. and vice president Ryan Reid brought the property to market in a no-minimum ask for New York City-based ING US Residential Fund II LP. Location, quality and deep-pocketed investors' demand to place money translate into a high-ticket deal, but Palmer's mum about the final price. This year, Uptown's high-end, mid-rise product has been ringing up $160,000 to $170,000 per door at many closing tables, often passing to condo converters but that market has started to cool.

The Boston-based GID will rename the seven-year-old Turtle Creek Villas to Windsor at Turtle Creek. The upcoming renovation, set to begin in three months, will focus on kitchen countertops and cabinets and hallways. "We just felt there was an opportunity to upgrade to bring it up to newer mid-rise properties in Uptown," Palmer says. "The newer ones are very luxurious. For its time, it was fine, but now it's fallen behind."

The one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments average 1,186 sf. The average rent is $1,754 per month or $1.45 per sf. "We think we can move rents and still be below the rents being charged by newer mid-rise and high-rise properties in the Uptown market," Palmer says about the post-renovation plan.

Palmer says the deal closed with cash from the Windsor Realty Fund-V LLC, which has the ability to invest another $800 million into class A multifamily properties in the US. Potential buys are 200 or more units in good locations, but there's "no box on the pricing," he says. "Dallas continues to be high on our list of target markets and the Uptown area offers the highest quality demographic trends in Dallas. We're out and about looking for more assets."