Change Coming for $3.7M Multifamily Purchase

IRVING, TX-Dallas-based AmeriSouth Realty Group has ended a one-year pursuit of a HUD-mortgaged property in Irving, doubling up the $3.7-million acquisition with a $3,500 per unit rehab on the 152-unit Raible Place.

AmeriSouth bought the 98%-leased complex from the Dallas nonprofit, the Raible Place Charitable Trust. The plan is to fix up the 34-year-old complex and significantly raise the rent.

Jeff Ratliff, executive vice president of AmeriSouth Real Estate Services Inc., tells GlobeSt.com that the first order of business was to sever the HUD contract for the South Irving complex near Texas 183 and Loop 12. The deal calls for 40 of the 152 units at 1200 Britain Rd. North to remain subsidized. The plan is to elevate rents to the market rate of 82 cents per sf for a bills-paid property, Ratliff says. The complex at sale time had an average rent of 45 cents per sf. The average unit size is 882 sf.

The rehab plan calls for interior and exterior upgrades. Meridian Commercial of Dallas is AmeriSouth’s preferred general contractor. Ratliff and AmeriSouth’s Case Stockton negotiated the Raible Place purchase.

AmeriSouth closed back-to-back multifamily buys within days. The 131-unit Taj Mahal was bought from AIMCO of Denver. For previous story, click here.

AmeriSouth started 2002 with a goal to buy 2,000 units, focusing on Dallas-Fort Worth and Austin. It is ending the year with 2,462 units in 10 buys to take the portfolio to an even 6,000 units. Ratliff says another 2,000 units, maybe even 3,000, will be bought in 2003. He won’t say where, but is saying there is another $10 million under contract. Those deals could close as early as February.