Steve Brown Apartments may buy The Towers and The Regent Apartments today.
Steve Brown Apartments supervisor Tim Wadlington said the deal would likely happen within the next day or two but cautioned that “deals are never really done until they’re done.”
“It appears that it will happen,” he said.
According to city records, The Towers property, located at 502 N. Frances St., is assessed at $7,218,000, and The Regent Apartments property, located at 1402 Regent St., is worth $6,025,000.
A private-residence-hall employee who wished to remain anonymous said Brown is paying $50 million for the two buildings.
“The sale is official as of tomorrow,” he said. He said Brown approached the companies at the start of 2003 to negotiate a deal.
Wadlington said Brown has been looking for an opportunity to buy the buildings for the past five years.
“The Towers and The Regent are very successful operations,” Wadlington said. “Owning The Towers is an interest because it’s a very nice location, a nice building, and it’s a similar building to what he already possesses.”
He said Brown purchased Statesider Private Residence Hall, which is located across the street from The Towers, five years ago for nearly $5 million.
No immediate changes to the properties would be made, other than a shift in the upper-level staff, Wadlington said.
However, the residence-hall employee said Brown was thinking about converting some of The Regent’s apartments into single-occupancy rooms to fill the complex.
“They think singles apartments would be easier to fill; right now The Regent is 30 percent empty, and The Towers has some empty apartments too,” he said. “The waiting list at the Statesider alone could fill The Towers.”
The Regent Apartments and The Towers were both bought for nearly $6 million each in April 1997 by College Park Communities Co., based in Birmingham, Ala.
Wadlington said the corporation is a group of investors that invests in real estate across the country and then hires management companies to run the apartment complexes. According to its website, it currently owns 44 student-housing properties in 28 locations across the country.
“One of the nice things about this is there would now be local ownership,” Wadlington said. “Steve manages whatever he buys.”
He said Brown currently owns approximately 50 properties in Madison, with his first Madison property purchase close to 30 years ago. He currently owns three private residence halls: Statesider, Langdon Private Residence Hall, and Highlander Private Residence Hall.
