SkyWalker Property Partners has purchased a for-profit educational campus in Oklahoma, making an inaugural investment in the industry and state for its two-year-old investment fund, Cash Flow Fever LLC.
Platt College is Tulsa's premier post-secondary school for the trades. The two-building campus, totaling 56,497 sf, is situated at one of the city's busiest intersections, Interstate 44 and Hwy. 64/51 (Broken Arrow Expressway).
Platt College's parent company, Ancora Education, is North Texas-based. The college has provided vocational training in healthcare and wellness, culinary arts, skilled trades and technology in eastern Oklahoma for more than 30 years. It also is Ancora's leading institutional brand in a portfolio of private, post-secondary schools in Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Oklahoma, all of which fall under Platt College's accreditation with the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges.
"We really appreciate the mission of training schools and this operator in particular," says Gary Walker of Arlington-based SkyWalker Property Partners.
Walker and Clint Holland of SkyWalker Property Partners negotiated the acquisition for the buyer of record, Cooking with Gas LLC. Angela West of CBRE represented the seller, CMS EDU Tulsa LP, a Delaware limited partnership.
"The trade school and college business is challenging and the demand for a trained workforce is great. Ancora is a survivor and a success story in vocational education," Walker says. "There is a definite need for schools like Platt College that offer training in skilled trades at affordable prices."
The 3.8-acre campus is located at 3717 and 3801 Sheridan Rd. A 20,160-sf structure houses a restaurant, Foundations, commercial kitchens and classrooms for Platt College's culinary school and training space for its HVAC technician program and equipment. Adjacent is a two-story
building with 36,337 sf of educational and support space for its curricula, which include medical programs.
STVT-AAI Education Inc. of Tarrant County has multiple years left on a triple net lease with annual rent hikes. Cash Flow Fever's new investment also came with a long-term billboard lease with Lamar Advertising Co., one of the largest outdoor advertisers in the world.
Walker has been eyeing investments in the Tulsa market for five years. "It has some common traits to Fort Worth," he explains. "Tulsa doesn't have the growth of DFW or Houston, but it has different kinds of good opportunities with staying power and investment returns."
The seven-county Tulsa MSA is home to an estimated 962,000 people or one-quarter of Oklahoma's total population. Key industries closely mirror those in DFW and Houston – aerospace, oil and gas, healthcare, technology, manufacturing and transportation.
"Downtown Tulsa has cool old buildings, a river and the backing of a generational philanthropic base, just like Fort Worth. We like what we see, aesthetically and investment-wise," Walker says.
Cash Flow Fever is an opportunistic investment fund with a portfolio of diverse income-producing commercial properties, primarily in Texas. Platt College is the fund's fifth acquisition and the first one outside the Lone Star State. Two months ago, Walker's search led him to Kenedy, southeast of San Antonio, where the fund scooped up one of seven locations net-leased to Beasley Tire Service Inc. And in recent weeks, a 5,685-sf two-story medical office building in Granbury was added to the fund's portfolio. Its other properties are a 36,879-sf call center in Wichita Falls and 9,601-sf auto center in Benbrook.
"We have ample funds to deploy. We like net-leased properties and stable multi-tenant assets for this fund's portfolio," says Holland, acquisitions director for SkyWalker Property Partners. "And, we aren't limited in scope to major metropolitan areas or property sector."
SkyWalker Property Partners identifies, underwrites, acquires and executes highly opportunistic and value-add investments on behalf of When Opportunity Knocks LLC and Cash Flow Fever LLC, funds formed in 2017 to build a $200 million portfolio of office, industrial and retail properties in Texas and surrounding states. The strategy targets transactions from $2 million to $15 million. Additional information about the investment group is available at www.SkyWalkerProperty.com.
