Westdale Asset Pockets 2,067-Unit Portfolio

DALLAS-Westdale Asset Management Inc., up against 15 other portfolio buyers, has claimed a 10-property package in Garland and Mesquite. Denver-based Simpson Housing LP put the 2,067-unit Lakeways portfolio and 55 developable acres on the market in August 2005 for $85 million.

There is no comment on the final price from the brokerage team, led by Don Ostroff, senior director for Cushman & Wakefield of Texas Inc.'s multi-housing group. When the dust settled on the all-cash deal, Dallas-based Westdale put up the highest offer for an upper-tier, class B package, with increasing performance levels. The package was 90% leased when it came to market, but picked up several percentage points, some rent gain and concession reductions as the deal played out, Ostroff tells GlobeSt.com.

Ostroff says Westdale is planning to recoup additional upside by developing more residential and possibly some retail on the extra land. "Westdale was the only group that was visionary enough to see the value of those parcels," he says, adding it's essentially the last multifamily-zoned land in Garland. "I know they are carefully evaluating every one of those land parcels."

Likewise, Westdale is putting each property under the magnifying glass for upgrades. "They are evaluating them one by one to see what the best game plan is for this asset," Ostroff says.

Ostroff adds that Westdale's distinct advantage is its working knowledge of the territory as a 10-year owner of 307 units, situated one mile to the south, with the same demographics and built in 1980s as condos just like the package by the same developer. The portfolio of one-, two- and three-bedroom units average 850 sf, with the average rent pushing $670 per month.

From the onset, the portfolio was destined to go as a whole because nine of the 10 properties are contiguous and straddle both sides of Interstate 30 on the western edge of Lake Ray Hubbard in Garland. The loner sits three miles west in Mesquite. It's not often, Ostroff points out, that a chance comes along to own 2,067 units that are less than 12 miles from Downtown Dallas. As a result, the bidders included institutional investors and REITs.

The Garland piece consists of Lakeway Colony at 1044 E. Highway 30; Lakeway Meadows at 241 E. Highway 30; Lakeway Forest at 1227 Forest Creek Dr.; Lakeview Village Condominiums at 4501 Bobtown Rd.; Lakeshore at 1282 Brockett Rd.; Lakeway Harbor and Lakeway Point, both at 4358 Point Blvd.; and Lakeway Place and Lakeway Trace, both at 4001 Easton Meadows. The Mesquite property is Highlands at Galloway at 4819 N. Galloway Rd.