Lakefront Complex Sells for $10.4M

WICHITA FALLS, TX-The 208-unit Wellington on the Lake has pulled $10.4 million from a Dallas-based partnership as it extends its reach 140 miles northwest of its homeport to get a 93%-occupied asset in excellent condition, lake frontage and market share in a fast-growing section of Wichita Falls.

Built in 1997, the property was bought from the Longview, TX-based developer, with the selling partnership, Wellington Lake Partners, set up as a single-asset entity. The buyer, funded with private capital, owns about 1,000 apartments in Dallas-Fort Worth via multiple equity alliances.

The buyer assumed a HUD 221 (d4) loan for $9 million to close the deal, Sam Lewis of Phoenix-based Hendricks & Partners’ Dallas office tells GlobeSt.com. The just-closed deal started working when Lewis and the transaction’s other brokers, Will Balthrope and Don Ostroff, were all at Grubb & Ellis Co. Balthrope and Ostroff now head up the Cushman & Wakefield Multi Housing Group.

“The play is there are about four years remaining on the HUD loan before it can be prepaid,” Lewis says, noting the deal closed with a plan to pay early and convert to conventional financing. The six-year-old complex is a mix of one- and two-bedroom units, averaging 877 sf. The monthly rent is now 78 cents per sf.

The asset, bought for long-term hold, has no deferred maintenance and no rehab plan in the works. “It’s in excellent condition,” Lewis says. The complex backs up to a private lake and is nestled in a newer single-family neighborhood near the intersection of Kell Boulevard, a primary thoroughfare, and Barnett Road.