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HOUSTON-Realty Associates Fund VIII has acquired the 296-unit Retreat at Cypress Station from its local developer, Allied Realty Services. The acquisition price was kept quiet due to a confidentiality clause, but similar assets are trading for $110,000 per unit.

Hendricks & Partners' principal Jim A. Hearn says the two-year-old asset at 18200 Westfield Place Dr., assessed at $22.7 million by Harris County, was on the market with another brokerage firm about one year ago, but was pulled due to lack of buyer interest. “By luck, this property was in lease-up during Hurricanes Rita and Katrina and the owners took on a significant number of corporate leases,” Hearn explains. As the corporate leases ran out, he says vacancies went up. “Some of the buyers were spooked,” he says.