Houston, TX (May 23, 2011) — Atlanta-headquartered ARA, the largest privately held, full-service investment advisory brokerage firm in the nation focusing exclusively on the multihousing industry, announces the sale of The Sunbelt Portfolio, a 10-property CMBS distressed portfolio located in both Texas and Florida and spanning across three separate ARA markets. From start to finish, nine of the 10 total properties closed throughout the almost two year period the transaction took to complete – The Cascades in West Palm Beach, FL is currently on the market.
ARA Houston-based principal, David Wylie, ARA-Austin-based principal, Jeff Patterson and ARA Florida-based principal, Avery Klann represented Byron Plant who was the first receiver, Steve Harr who was the second and last receiver and New York, NY-based Torchlight Investors, an independent SEC registered investment advisor, focused on commercial real estate debt investments, in the transaction.
With 1,932 total units, the nine assets which sold are in the Houston area and the one remaining asset is located in West Palm Beach, Florida. According to David Wylie, "The assets are well located and in excellent condition relative to other distressed assets, but this was a very complicated transaction to execute. It is a great case study on a large distressed portfolio transaction that is a mix of both cash and seller financed transactions that received over 240 offers which gave us great insight into the market. The pool of buyers across the portfolio ranged from local, regional, and national players with varying strategies and business plans for the individual assets. We were blown away by the amount of interest shown and the depth of the market."
ARA orchestrated the sale of the nine assets listed below using a mixture of all cash and seller financed transactions involving six separate buyers.
• Avalon Bay closed June 2010
• The Place at Green Trails closed October 2010
• Beacon Hill closed October 2010
• Deerbrook Forest closed October 2010
• Broadmead closed November 2010
• The Harbour closed December 2010
• Somerset Place closed January 2011
• Chalfonte closed March 2011
• Carrington Court closed March 2011
During the course of marketing, each of the more than 240 offers was analyzed allowing the team to maximize the total return to the seller. "The process was complicated by court proceedings and required two years to complete but in the end the proceeds were 20% higher than a straight all cash transaction would have brought," said Wylie.
To schedule an interview with an ARA executive regarding this transaction or for more information about ARA, nationally please contact Lisa Robinson at lrobinson@ARAusa.com, 678.553.9360 or Amy Morris at amorris@ARAusa.com, 678.553.9366; locally, Yvonne Sarmiento at sarmiento@ARAusa.com, 713.599.1800.
About ARA
Atlanta-headquartered ARA is the largest privately held, full-service investment advisory firm in the nation that focuses exclusively on the brokerage, financing and capital sourcing of multihousing properties including conventional, affordable, distressed assets, notes sales, seniors, student & manufactured housing and multihousing land. ARA is comprised of the country's top investment professionals who leverage a unique and fully integrated cooperative business platform of shared information, relationships and technology driven solutions. ARA's unified enterprise approach ensures that clients are delivered the broadest asset exposure, effective matching of buyers and sellers, and the shortest transaction timeframes in the industry. The combination of resources, unparalleled market expertise and nationwide presence in the multihousing marketplace has resulted in average annual production volume of $5.5 billion in real estate transactions since 2005. For detailed information on ARA's extensive multihousing investment services, visit www.arausa.com.