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Teacher Fund Selling Apartments Back

The Arkansas Teacher Retirement System is selling back to Lindsey Properties its interest in some apartments it acquired 12 years ago.

The teacher pension fund acquired an almost-half percent interest in more than 17-hundred apartments in three Oklahoma locations.

The board of the retirement system voted to sell the units back for other reasons than a poor return on its investment. The apartments brought a seven percent return the first five years and eight percent the last seven.

However, high maintenance costs ate into that return. Retirement System Executive Director George Hopkins said the amount going for maintenance was about 16 percent of the properties’ total annual revenue.

He told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette the system is still interested in apartments for investment, but not ones that are 25-to-30 years old.

The board expects to sell the properties back to Lindsey for about 46-point-three million dollars—nearly four million more than it paid for them in 2001