High-rise condos to go on auction block

Centrum investors are using strategy that's new to Dallas

12:00 AM CDT on Tuesday, April 10, 2007
By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News

The owners of an Oak Lawn high-rise condominium have decided to auction off more than a dozen of the luxury residential units.

The condos are on the top floors of the Centrum tower at Oak Lawn Avenue and Cedar Springs Road.

Thirty-four living units in the building were purchased in late 2005 by Centennial Real Estate Corp. of Dallas and GEM Realty Capital of Chicago.

The rental units were converted into condominiums and have sold for more than $500,000 to almost $3 million.

Now the owners plan to auction off 15 of the unsold condos May 20.

Sheldon Good & Co. of Chicago has been hired to handle the auction.

Five of the units will be sold without a minimum bid.

The auctioneer is suggesting that opening bids for the high- rise properties start between $250,000 and $500,000 for the condominiums, which range from 1,362 square feet to 5,164 square feet.

"We want to sell the building out," said Steve Levin, president of Centennial Real Estate. "Our partnership group thought this was a great way to sell a lot of units very quickly.

"This is a strategy that hasn't been done here but has been done in other markets successfully," he said. "I think other people here will do it."

The Centrum investors also plan to sell a three-story penthouse unit in a sealed-bid auction.

"We decided to break with traditional marketing efforts," said Travis Mathews, a vice president at Briggs-Freeman Real Estate Brokerage who is marketing the units. "We've had a great response from fellow real estate agents."

Mr. Mathews said that about eight of the 34 units in the building have been sold and that most of what's available in the building is going up for auction.

Any remaining units after the auction will be listed for sale, he said.

The auction of high-rise condos doesn't happen often in the Dallas market – "certainly not at the higher end," Mr. Mathews said.

Dallas housing analyst Mike Puls said the planned auction is a sign that the high-rise condo market has softened.

"The air is coming out the bubble," Mr. Puls said.

The 19-story Centrum opened in 1987 with two floors for retail space and 250,000 square feet of offices. The residential units occupy the stair-stepped upper floors.