Gables Residential Buys, Sells Properties

BOCA RATON, FL-Locally based Gables Residential has sold a site for $27.5 million, purchased a 324-unit apartment community and sold its interest in another company. In addition, the company has increased its earnings guidance for the third quarter.The apartments Gables acquired, located in the Buckhead Established Premium Neighborhood of Atlanta, are being named Gables Lindbergh. This three-year-old community has units averaging 1,034 sf. Currently, revenue was $1.13 per sf.In addition, the company has acquired and sold approximately 1.5 acres in Arlington, VA. Gables acquired this site for $11.1 million and sold it for $27.5 million through its taxable subsidiary.”The sale of the Arlington Courthouse land represented a unique opportunity for Gables to harvest some of the significant value increase that has occurred in our [Established Premium Neighborhoods] over the last several years,” Gables Residential CEO Chris Wheeler says in a statement. The company included this potential sale in the high end of its full-year guidance but not in its third-quarter guidance.In the CMS venture, which owned three apartment complexes in Tennessee, the company sold its 8.3% joint venture interest.Due to the land sale, Gables is raising not only its third-quarter earnings guidance, but also the low end of its year guidance. For the third quarter, the company expects net income available to common shareholders to fall between $1.05 and $1.08. It’s expected funds from operations available to common shareholders is 79 cents to 82 cents. And its expected adjusted funds from operations: $1.05 to $1.10.For the year, Gables’ expected net income available to common shareholders is between $3.82 and $3.90, expected funds from operations available to common shareholders is $2.38 to $2.42, and the adjusted funds from operations is expected to fall between $2.50 and $2.60.The company is still assessing potential costs related to Hurricane Jeanne; therefore, the earnings guidance does not take this into account. The company is scheduled to release its third-quarter earnings Nov. 3.