Investor Buys Austin Apartment Property
Falcon Southwest has purchased the 324-unit Deerfield Apartments from Nevins Adams Lewbel Schell. The property is located close to Mopac Expressway about 10 miles southwest of downtown Austin, Texas.
By Dees Stribling, Contributing Editor
Austin, Texas—Falcon Southwest has purchased the 324-unit Deerfield Apartments from Nevins Adams Lewbel Schell. The property is located close to Mopac Expressway about 10 miles southwest of downtown Austin, Texas.
Completed in 2001, Deerfield Apartments has one-, two- and three-bedroom units averaging 945 square feet each, and was 97 percent leased at the time of sale. The parties involved in the transaction didn’t specify the price. Holliday Fenoglio Fowler represented the seller in the deal, led by senior managing director Sean Sorrell.
According to Falcon Southwest, its investment strategy emphasizes direct acquisitions or recapitalizations of office, industrial and multifamily properties in markets in the southwestern United States. Typical acquisitions range in size from $10 million to $50 million.
The buyer adds that it specializes in value-added acquisition and repositioning opportunities. In this case, the repositioning is relatively minor: The new ownership of the Deerfield Apartments says it will implement moderate upgrades to common areas and unit interiors during its hold period.
Austin, with its relatively strong employment base and large student population, has enjoyed a strong multifamily market in recent years, even more so than most other metro areas. According to MFP Research, the apartment occupancy rate in Austin was 95.6 percent in the second quarter of 2012, up a full percentage point since the first quarter of the year after two quarters of slightly negative absorption. Also, effective rents jumped 2.6 percent for the quarter, or an annualized rate of 6.1 percent.