Raleigh real estate executive shares company’s success story involving 2009 coastal property acquisition

RALEIGH, NC – April 21, 2010 – John Preiss, Vice President of Business Development of The Preiss Company (TPCO), is among 11 Certified Commercial Investment Members (CCIM) spotlighted in the March/April 2010 issue of Commercial Investment Real Estate, the magazine of the CCIM Institute. The article, entitled “A Very Good Year: CCIMs were well-equipped to face the challenges of 2009” was written by CIRE’s associate editor, Rich Rosfelder, and demonstrated how CCIMs from across the country were able to beat industry odds to make “2009 a year to remember”. Preiss was recognized for his role in TPCO’s Myrtle Beach student housing property acquisition.  
As VP of Business Development, Preiss is responsible for sourcing capital and new product and is in charge of the company’s conventional properties. He was awarded CCIM designation in 2007. In February 2009, Preiss represented TPCO in the acquisition of University Village at the Coast— a 436-bed, 150-unit apartment property located three miles of Coastal Carolina University in South Carolina. In 2008, the property, formerly known as Campus Pointe at Myrtle Beach, was only 47 percent leased and the owner was looking to sell the underperforming property.

“We offered about 50 cents on [the dollar],” says Preiss in the article. “Since we paid so little for the property, we were able to drop rents to the lowest in the market.”

TPCO purchased the property for $6.2 million and then turned around and invested $1 million in capital improvements. Less than one year after purchase, the property was 94 percent occupied. TPCO worked with Freddie Mac at the end of 2009 to do a cash-out refinancing—just nine months after buying the asset.

This isn’t the first time that TPCO’s success with their coastal property has made the news. The acquisition was also featured in the November/December 2009 issue of Apartment Finance Today as one of the publication’s “13 Most Creative Deals of 2009”.

University Village at the Coast represented TPCO’s first footprint in the Myrtle Beach area. Since that acquisition, the company has assumed management of another property in South Carolina—Magnolia Lane Apartments, a 96-bed, 48-unit property that shares a property line with Coastal Carolina University.

About The Preiss Company
Founded in 1987 by Donna Preiss, The Preiss Company employs over 200 team members and is largest provider of off-campus student housing at North Carolina State University, Clemson University, Auburn University in Alabama, Coastal Carolina University and Winthrop University in SC, and the University of Texas in Austin and the second largest provider at UNC Charlotte. TPCO is the leader in the development of new technologies, tools, and strategies for the student housing industry and also acts as a receiver for several national banks. In its 23rd year, the company has formed over 50 partnerships and developed over 20 projects stretching from Maryland to Texas. TPCO was awarded the Steady Growth and Profitability Master Award by the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce in 2009 and its South Carolina property was recently featured by Apartment Finance Today as one of the publication’s “13 Most Creative Deals of 2009”. For more information, visit www.tpco.com. 

About the CCIM Institute 
Since 1969, the Chicago-based CCIM Institute has conferred the Certified Commercial Investment Member (CCIM) designation to commercial real estate and allied professionals through an extensive curriculum of 200 classroom hours and professional experiential requirements. Currently, there are more than 9,000 CCIMs in 1,000 markets in the U.S. and 31 additional countries. Another 7,000 practitioners are pursuing the designation, making the institute the governing body of one of the largest commercial real estate networks in the world. An affiliate of the National Association of Realtors®, the CCIM Institute’s recognized curriculum, powerful technology tools, and networking programs impact and influence the way CCIM members do business. Visit www.ccim.com, www.stdbonline.com, and www.ccimredex.com for more information.