The Bruton Oaks trade involving the asset at 9901 Bruton Rd., follows transactions involving similar assets in the area. The 154-unit La Acienda Gardens at 1212 Glen Garden Dr. in Fort Worth was also an REO sold to a local buyer. Meanwhile, the 201-unit Skyline Circle Apartments at 201 Skyline Circle in Grand Prairie ended up in the portfolio of area buyer Skyline Redevelopment LLC. The special servicer on the latter was Myan Management Group.
Armand Charbonneau, senior vice president with Transwestern's Dallas office led the team involved in all three transactions, tells GlobeSt.com that the deals were mainly cash, though some financing was obtained. Interestingly enough, it wasn't necessarily the properties that attracted lenders' interest, as much as it was the quality of the borrowers.
"The banks in all three of these cases responded to the borrowers' financial capability and experience," Charbonneau comments. "These were guys who had been in the business for a long time, who stepped away during the recent economic downturn, and are now coming back in."
Charbonneau sees this as a definite trend, especially as more distressed multifamily hits the market. He points out that the distressed assets have been slow to come to market for a few reasons, one of which has been the desire of lenders to work with borrowers before throwing in the towel. Lenders, he explains, haven't wanted to take back the assets and sell them, because they knew buyers couldn't get any kind of financing.
However, "there are real buyers coming into the market again," Charbonneau says. That, combined with the fact that lenders can't keep failing assets on the books for two long, will push more product onto the market. "We think we'll see a lot more coming on the market by 2010 and into 2011," Charbonneau adds.
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