Less than four years after the Dallas luxury apartment tower Gabriella opened near Deep Ellum, a lender has foreclosed on the building.
According to The Dallas Morning News, Areeif Lender W LLC, an affiliate of Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation, acquired the Live Oak Street property for $80 million after developer Greystar defaulted on its debts. In 2022, Greystar borrowed $127 million in mortgages on the building.
A Tom Thumb store is on the ground floor of the 14-story tower that includes one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments at rents starting around $1,400 a month. Amenities at Gabriella include an infinity edge pool, resident lounge, fitness club, golf simulator, outdoor entertainment area, and private garages.
The building is near what was once the Elan City Lights apartments, where the collapse of a construction crane in 2019 killed 29-year-old Kiersten Smith. A jury last April awarded the woman’s mother, Michele Williams, more than $860 million after finding Greystar guilty of negligence in the incident.
On June 9, 2019, high winds reportedly caused the crane to collapse into Smith’s apartment building, killing her and injuring five other residents. Wiliams sued Greystar, which had leased the crane from Bigge Crane and Rigging, and jurors decided that the developer was at fault.
According to The Dallas Morning News, Greystar is one of the nation’s largest builders of apartment homes, owning or managing more than 120 communities in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The foreclosure is one of the largest in the metroplex as of late, and interest rates and stricter financing parameters have made it more difficult to secure mortgages, the newspaper reported.