SBV Buys OKC Apartment Property

By Dees Stribling, Contributing Editor

Oklahoma City—SBV Communities, the multifamily real estate division of Kansas City, Mo.-based Spectrum Business Ventures Inc., has bought the 119-unit Ridgeview Apartments in Oklahoma City for an unspecified price. The acquisition is the fifth this year for the multifamily specialist and marks an expansion of its geographic footprint, since it doesn’t own any other properties in the city.

The company focuses on snapping up lender-owned, B and C apartment complexes with value-add potential. Recently it closed on a 156-unit property in Austin and a 206-unit property in Little Rock.

According to SBV Communities, the OKC market attracted its attention in part due to the expected jobs growth in the area. The employment base of Oklahoma City includes historically stable segments of the economy—government and education—and has recently enjoyed significant investments from private employers such as Boeing, Devon Energy and SandRidge Energy.

MPF Research says that during the second quarter of 2012, overall occupancy in the OKC apartment market stood at 93.6 percent, down 0.7 points in the quarter, but up 0.1 point annually. That rate would have been higher if not for pre-1980 product, which posted occupancy rates between 91 percent to 92 percent. Product built since 1980 logged occupancy rates of 95 percent or better.

Effective rents for the market overall climbed 1.1 percent quarter-over-quarter during 2Q12 and 4.8 percent year-over-year, according to MPF. That annual figure was pulled up slightly by post-1980 product, which saw effective prices for new leases climb just over 5 percent on average. That was a bit better than the annual increase for pre-1980 units, which was at about 4 percent.