The Wolff Cos., long one of the most prolific apartment-complex operators in the Spokane area, is establishing itself as a major player in the Las Vegas and Boise markets, with more than $100 million in rental-property acquisitions and new development planned in those two cities over the next year.


The current acquisitions and developments are part of the companys new strategy to add 1,000 rental units annually to its portfolio of properties, says Wolff Cos. Chairman Alvin J. Fritz Wolff Jr. This year, the 52-year-old company expects to exceed that goal with a single, $72 million acquisition its spearheading with other investors to acquire 1,150 rental units in the Las Vegas area.


That transaction is scheduled to be completed next month, Wolff says. It involves a package of three apartment complexes, and would be by far the largest single transaction Wolff Cos. has been involved with to date, he says. Wolff Cos. will be the controlling partner in an investment group that includes Lehman Brothers, a New York-based investment banking firm, and others.


Its a portfolio size that gives us an instant presence in the (Las Vegas) market, Wolff says.


The three properties include two complexes within the city of Las Vegas, with 440 and 326 units respectively, and a development with 384 units in Henderson, Nev., which is just south of Las Vegas.


Alvin J. Wolff Management Co., one of five companies that Wolff Cos. owns, will manage the three complexes.


In Boise, Wolff Cos. bought two apartment developments last year with a total of 408 units, and has bought land there, for a total current investment of $38 million in that market, Wolff says. It plans to develop a 160-unit complex on the land it has bought. At $70,000 per apartment, which Wolff says is a typical figure for an apartment-development project, the 160-unit development would cost more than $11 million.


The company also is negotiating to buy more land in the Boise area on which it would develop two other new projects that would have about 600 units combined. Wolff says its still uncertain whether those projects will happen. Though costs havent been determined yet, it typically costs between $42 million and $45 million to develop 600 apartment units, he says.


Either through those projects or others, he says, the company intends to increase its presence in Boise to more than 1,000 units within a year.


Still busy at home


While busy there and in Las Vegas, the company still is involved in several projects in the Spokane area. For instance:


Alvin J. Wolff Inc., the acquisition and development company for Wolff Cos., started work earlier this month on the final phase of development at Big Trout Lodge, in the Liberty Lake area. The final phase involves construction of 180 apartments, and will give the complex a total of 520 units overall, says Fritz H. Wolff, a member of the Wolff Cos. board of directors and one of Alvin J. Wolff Jr.s four sons. He declines to release a cost estimate for the project.


The final phase, which is located along Mission Avenue just east of the rest of the complex, should be completed next summer, the younger Wolff says.


On that schedule, Big Trout Lodge will be fully developed about two years earlier than originally expected, says Dean Clark, president and CEO of Alvin J. Wolff Management Co., which manages apartment complexes. He says that company has been able to fill units there quickly and charge at higher rents than in the rest of the marketbecause, he asserts, of the quality of the development and its proximity to both Spokane and Coeur dAlene.


Inland Construction Co., of Spokane, is the general contractor on the final phase of Big Trout Lodge.


Alvin J. Wolff Inc. has broken ground on a $4 million, 54-unit student-housing project at Gonzaga University. The three-story building, which is located along Sharp Avenue where the former law school was located before it was razed last summer, is expected to be completed next June, the older Wolff says. The building will be leased to Gonzaga, which will manage it, he says.


Inland Construction Co., of Spokane, also is the general contractor on that project.


Alvin J. Wolff Inc. bought Villa 90, a 90-unit apartment complex next door to Wolff Cos. corporate headquarters in the Spokane Valley, earlier this year and has started a $500,000 renovation project there. The project involves updating both the exteriors and interiors of all nine buildings in the complex. That project is expected to be completed next May, when the complexs name will be changed to Linger Longer Lodge.


A $360,000 modernizing project is planned at a Wolff-owned 65-unit apartment complex on Spokanes North Side called Cedar Village. The company also plans to rename that property, but hasnt settled on a new name.


Overall, the company currently owns and operates about 2,100 apartment units in the Spokane area, far more than in any of the other cities where it does business.


Our preference is to continue to focus on Spokane, Boise, and Las Vegas, and keep a watchful eye on other communities, Fritz H. Wolff says.


He says Wolff Cos. also currently is considering acquiring properties in Portland, San Diego, and Austin, Tex., but hasnt made any moves in those markets yet.


The younger Wolff heads up much of Alvin J. Wolff Inc.s acquisition activity and is the youngest of the four sons, all of whom are on the Wolff Cos. board. His brothers, from oldest to youngest, are Tim, who lives in Seattle and isnt involved in the companys day-to-day operations; Peter, owner of a Seattle architectural firm called Wolff Planning Group that designs all of the companys projects; and Jesse, who is president and broker of Wolff Services Corp., which oversees nonrental-related revenue streams.


With its accelerated expansion pace, Wolff Cos. is having to make some adjustments at the corporate level, Alvin J. Fritz Wolff Jr. says.


For instance, he says, Alvin J. Wolff Inc. now has enough activity on both acquisitions and development to split off its development business into a separate company. Wolff says he expects that to occur sometime next year.


Earlier this year, Wolff conducted a nationwide search for new executives to head Alvin J. Wolff Management Co., which is taking on ever more work since it manages all of the new properties that Wolff Cos. adds in other areas.


In March, it hired Clark as president and CEO of the management company, and Lorelei Koester as vice president of operations. Both Clark and Koester previously held executive positions at Dominium Management Services Inc., a Minneapolis-based apartment-complex development company that owns a total of 15,000 units nationwide.