Rob Johnston, president of First Community Management Inc., Atlanta, and past president of the National Apartment Association, calls Governor's Point "a classic Drever turnaround opportunity of an underperforming asset with an exceptional location in a still viable submarket, hard-hit by the high-tech collapse and job losses."

He calls Governor's Point "a well-preserved, beautifully manicured neighborhood, just the opposite of the brand new, high-density apartment complexes where the developer has scraped the ground and only has heavy spots of trees around their entry and clubhouse."

Derrick Bloom, a principal in Apartment Realty Advisors' Atlanta office who negotiated for the seller, calls the transaction "a win for Equity Residential Properties Trust which wants to redeploy its capital into newer multifamily buildings."

Bloom says Drever's group was a low bidder on Governor's Point but was chosen "because of Drever's bankable closing record." The broker says, "Almost overnight, CAM had 31 due diligence and property turnaround specialists on site. They did a thorough, fast-track analysis in three days, a real feat." Blooms says "a tired property, this large, usually takes at least 30 days to inspect. As promised, they closed on time and, better yet, were very responsive and easy to work with."

Robert LaChapelle, director, LJ Melody & Co.'s local office, and Bernard Branca, his counterpart at Melody's Houston office, arranged a $23.2-million acquisition loan for Drever at a 4.75% interest rate through Freddie Mac's Southeastern US loan production office.

"The Freddie Mac lender realized this was an underperforming asset," says LaChapelle. "But with CAM's value-added enhancement program, known in apartment circles as 'Dreverizing,' it will be re-energized into a class A property. Hence, we were able to get the buyer preferential pricing." CAM has a war chest to buy another $400 million in property and is "shooting for more closings" in the next 30 to 90 days "when other buyer's deals fall out of bed," says Odland, the company's CEO.

This is Drever's second multifamily acquisition in metro Atlanta in the past 12 months. Last March, the fund bought Grayson Park, a class A, 18-month-old, 180-unit gated apartment complex in suburban Decatur, GA, near Emory University Medical Center. The property is currently 93% occupied.