The Regal Brook apartment complex on Skillman in Lake Highlands has a new owner. Dallas-based Wind Properties, LLC bought the foreclosed property from Regal Brook Holding in Ohio last week for $3.2 million. CB Richard Ellis VP Chris Deuillet, who represented the previous owner in the transaction, says Wind Properties plans to refurbish the complex.

“This is a hands-on local operator who will spend money on the property, spruce it up and take it from a B-minus property to a B property,” Deuillet said.

Regal Brook, located at 8303 Skillman, went into foreclosure in January of this year. Wind Properties is expected to spend more than $1 million on the 160-unit complex in the next two years. Deuillet says the property, built in 1978, is in good shape overall but that the interiors need work. Upgrades could include a new wrought iron fence, interior paint and new appliances.

Lake Highlands Area Improvement VP Scott Wynne says this transaction is indicative of a trend for out of state investors who overpaid for properties such as Regal Brook during the boom of the last few years to sell later at significantly lower prices.

“When you see that a multi-family property has sold here in Lake Highlands, you hope the new owner wants to scrape the lot and start over with something else, so it’s troubling to see someone wanting to keep it going as apartments. It’s good the owner is local, and it’s good they want to put money into it; those things make you hopeful they want to operate a safe, clean, code-compliant property for the good of the community and their tenants,” Wynne said.