HOUSTON-HIG Realty Partners of New York City has ended a close to four-year hold on the 378-unit Arbor Ridge Apartments, selling it to Des Moines, IA-based Threshold Capital LLC as a value-add play. HIG had owned Arbor Ridge since October, 2009.

The 1980s-built apartment complex is at 22921 Imperial Valley in what's known as the East Champion submarket. Located near Interstate 45 and sandwiched between the Greenspoint submarket on the south and the booming Spring and The Woodlands submarkets on the north, Champion East was hit harder than other Houston submarkets during the downturn.

"It's an area that went through some distress in the recession, but has recovered since then," comments Transwestern's vice president of multifamily services Clint Duncan. Duncan, who represented the seller in the Arbor Ridge transaction, tells GlobeSt.com that the submarket is characterized by multifamily properties that were built in the 1970s and 1980s; in fact, it was an area in which distressed deals traded on a regular basis. Duncan says that the Arbor Ridge sellers were able to keep the asset from foreclosure during the downturn. "The market came back a little for them, they decided to exit the deal, and they were able to make some money on the asset," he says.