DENTON, TX-A Canadian investment group, looking to break into North Texas for awhile, has bagged its first multifamily property, the 308-unit Savannah Trails Apartments. The all-cash play closed one day ahead of schedule after going full circle in 74 days at the height of the capital markets pullback.

“Timing was critical,” says Peter Hartnett, associate partner in Dallas for Hendricks & Partners, who credited Alex Katz, now managing director of the Los Angeles office for New York City-based Meridian Capital Group LLC with keeping the deal on track. Hartnett tells GlobeSt.com that the buyer of record, Dallas Two LLC of Canmore, Alberta, had to put up an extra $250,000 of earnest money for the 1610 E. McKinney St. property to lock in its interest rate.

As the capital markets faltered, Katz also managed to get a defeasance done in two weeks for the Dallas-based seller, Apple Creek Partnership LP, and sewed up details for the buyer's loan at a lower fixed-rate interest with Credit Suisse First Boston, according to Hartnett. “He was very instrumental in getting that deal done. They performed, they did exactly what they'd said they'd do and they didn't re-trade,” the broker says.