A distressed apartment property on San Antonio’s North Side, formerly owned by embattled multifamily syndicator GVA, sold at auction recently. 

An LLC with ties to LoanCore Capital, the lender that foreclosed on the property in November, paid $21.3 million for the 285-unit Solara complex, at 11710 Parliament Street, the Austin Business Journal reported. 

The price, equating to roughly $74,700 per unit, marks a roughly 21 percent discount from its appraised value of $27 million, according to Bexar County tax records.

Austin-based GVA defaulted on a $56.3 million variable-rate loan, prompting LoanCore to take back the property. It’s unclear how much of the loan balance remained when foreclosure proceedings began. 

LoanCore appointed independent trustees of law firm Holland & Knight to handle the March 5 auction. 

GVA, which has a portfolio of roughly 30,000 units, is grappling with distressed assets across the Texas Triangle and beyond. The firm, led by principal Alan Stalcup, failed to make its November and December mortgage payments for the 328-unit Bella Madera apartments in northwest San Antonio.

Two of the firm’s Austin properties — Falls on Bull Creek and Park at Walnut Creek — went into foreclosure in December after defaulting on nearly $125 million in loans. 

GVA also faces foreclosure on the 264-unit Retreat at Stafford apartment complex in Houston, after falling delinquent on a $288 million loan.

The firm’s problems deepened in January, when it missed payments on a $145 million loan tied to three Sun Belt assets, leading to foreclosure filings for two of them. 

However, the firm has successfully offloaded a few properties as of late, including the 335-unit Aspire Apartments in San Antonio and a 252-unit complex in suburban Nashville. 

—Quinn Donoghue 

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Move over, Austin: Cedar Park was just named the No. 4 best Texas city to move to in 2024.

The city came out among the top five in a new population analysis by USA Today Homefront, published February 19, that examined 52 Texas cities across 19 key indicators, including school quality, affordability, entertainment, and more.

Highlights of the city include a low crime rate, low unemployment rate (3 percent), and a high median income level ($114,735) thanks to major employers like the Cedar Park Regional Medical Center.

But there’s more to life than employment, as Austinites all know well. Entertainment is another major factor, which the report says Cedar Park excels at.

“[Cedar Park] is full of microbreweries and also home to two minor league NBA and NHL teams, the Austin Spurs and the Texas Stars,” the report said.

Cedar Park residents have an average life expectancy of 81.6-years-old, according to the report. The average rent in the city is $1,743 per month, while the report says the average home is valued at about $485,588.

So it’s no wonder that major brands like Nebraska Furniture Mart are eager to move to the city.

Round Rock landed just outside the top 10 into No. 12, with a similar unemployment rate (2.9 percent) and life expectancy to Cedar Park. However, the average rent is $71 higher than Cedar Park’s, while the city’s median income is much lower, at $81,804. Houses in Round Rock have a typical home value of $433,055, the report found.

Round Rock also ranked No. 12 in Fortune Magazine’s 2023 list of the best places to live in 2023.

Austin came in at No. 25 on USA Today’s list, though its life expectancy (81.4-years-old), unemployment rate (2.9 percent), and typical rent prices ($1,742) echo Cedar Park and Round Rock. However, the report says the city’s median income is $89,415, while the typical home value is predictably higher than its suburbs, at $530,990.

The top 10 best cities to move to in 2024, according to USA Today, are:

• No. 1 – Tyler
• No. 2 – Laredo
• No. 3 – New Braunfels
• No. 4 – Cedar Park
• No. 5 – Temple
• No. 6 – McAllen
• No. 7 – Longview
• No. 8 – Abilene
• No. 9 – El Paso
• No. 10 – Victoria

The report gathered its data from multiple sources to determine the rankings, including data from Zillow, the U.S. Census Bureau, Tripadvisor, FEMA, the U.S. Centers Medicare and Medicaid Services, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and more.