$31M Lines Up OU Student Housing Exchange

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NORMAN, OK-Education Realty Trust Inc., overseer for the 631-bed, two-year-old Reserve on Stinson at the University of Oklahoma, has aligned with a joint venture partner to acquire the asset for $31 million. The deal will close within two months.

“We’ll be the takeout,” Craig Cardwell, executive vice president and chief investment officer for Memphis-based Education Realty, tells GlobeSt.com about the long-range plan for the 18-acre development at 730 Stinson St., which it’s been managing since its delivery. He says the anticipated hold of the JV purchase with Chicago-based Walton Street Capital LLC is “six or seven years.”

The JV acquired the Reserve from Stinson Development LLC and PEC Enterprises Inc. of Oklahoma City, assuming a $24-million loan to make the close. Cardwell says the assumed debt has a 10-year term and low 5% fixed-rate interest.

The Reserve will be the second student housing project that Education Realty and Walton Street have bought as JV partners in the past month. Cardwell says there is no acquisition pool or fund, but rather takedowns on a case-by-case basis. The duo also bought the 525-bed University of Village Towers in Riverside, CA for $45 million.

The trust’s subsidiary, Allen & O’Hara Education Services Inc. has managed the fully leased complex since it came on line in 2004. Subsequent phases opened in 2005 and early 2006. The Reserve on Stinson has two-, three- and four-bedroom apartments, with single-room occupancies in 12-month leases that bring in $400 per bed on average.

“We try to be very opportunistic,” Cardwell adds, citing a historical annual buying record of five to nine properties. “This year, we’ve bought nearly $300 million, including a portfolio. We still have more plans for this year.”