Inside Sale Turns 312 Class A Units for About $23M

RICHARDSON, TX-Investcorp has sold a 312-unit, class A complex to its management company after it swooped in for the close before the sales book could be finished. The holding sold for slightly less than the $23.5-million price tag about to be hung on a 96%-leased asset in the Telecom Corridor.

“It’s every buyer’s dream,” Will Balthrope, senior director for Cushman & Wakefield’s Multi-Housing Group, says of the Sonterra at Buckingham Apartments at 520 Buckingham Place. “It’s in a true barrier to entry submarket and absolutely no land sites near it and only three competing properties to it.”

Balthrope says Investcorp held true to a trend in multifamily sales of late: taking a hit with a pre-payable penalty to sell the asset free and clear of debt. The tactic allowed the buyer, Greystar Real Estate Partners of Dallas, to secure a new loan at a significantly lower interest rate, he says. As for the buy side, he tells GlobeSt.com that “the price they could achieve by selling free and clear was higher than if they’d sold it and the loan assumed.”

The New York City-based Investcorp bought the Sonterra in 1999, three years after it delivered. The 13-building complex on 13.6 acres has 168 one-bedroom units, 120 two-bedroom designs and 24 three-bedroom apartments. Units average 894 sf and monthly rent runs $1.03 or an average of $920. Concessions are minimal, says Balthrope, who brokered the sale along with C&W senior director Don Ostroff and associate director Susie Kakos.

Balthrope says Greystar, Sonterra’s property manager, got wind of the sale and made an offer that thwarted the marketing before it got started. Greystar has been selectively buying multifamily assets on behalf of pension funds, he says of the recognized management company’s added business dimension.