The University Crescent and Burbank Commons apartment complexes changed ownership earlier this month as part of a $1.2 billion deal brokered by a Texas-based student housing company.
The apartment complexes were previously owned by GHM Communities Trust. They are now owned by American Campus Communities, Inc. – the largest developer, owner and manager of student housing communities in the country.
American Campus paid $30.8 million for University Crescent and $21.3 million for Burbank Commons, according to the Baton Rouge Business Report.
“We are pleased to announce the closing of this transaction,” said Bill Bayless, American Campus Communities CEO, in a news release. “We believe the application of our premier management systems will unlock the operational upside of the GMH portfolio, creating one of the best platforms in the industry for future earnings growth.”
University Crescent contains 192 units. Burbank Commons contains 440 units.
With the purchasing of GHM Communities Trust’s properties, American Campus currently owns 88 student-housing properties and has a minority interest in 21 joint-venture properties across the country.
Although American Campus acquired all of GHM’s student-housing complexes, it did not acquire the company’s military housing units, enabling American Campus to remain solely a student-housing company.
American Campus is a self-managing and self-administered company.
Though the ownership of the complexes has changed, Gina Cowart, American Campus’s vice president of Investor Relations and Corporate Marketing, said no changes will occur this year.
Cowart said the company is in an assessment phase for an undetermined amount of time. She said American Campus will soon begin to look at the properties, but no changes will be implemented prior to the 2009-10 contract year.
Steve Johnson, business management junior and University Crescent resident, said it is time for a change in management. He said customer service is awful, and getting things fixed is extremely tedious.
“They kind of take advantage of us because we are students,” Johnson said.
But Johnson said he is not optimistic about the change in ownership.
“Things will [not] get any better,” he said.
Johnson said the company will probably implement good changes initially, but they will slack off with customer service in the end.
“Ultimately, it’s about making money,” Johnson said.
Other apartment residents are more optimistic about the change in ownership.
“It will be a good thing,” said Megan Blaum, business junior.
Blaum said she never had matienence problems, but when she would visit the office for help, she said the workers were often uninformed.
She also said the move-in day for the complex was unorganized.
Emily Danna, kinesology junior, said she hopes the change in management will improve customer service.
Jordan Dupont, political science junior, said the transition in ownership can only mean good things for the complexes.
“I’m glad they changed,” he said. “They needed to change.”
Dupont said the front office included many younger staff who were incompentent. He said the management taped refunded rent checks to the front doors of apartments with residents’ personal information exposed. He said this incompitence caused him to not live in the complex next year.
—-Contact Allen Womble at awomble@lsureveille.com