Central Florida Apartments Command $50M

The Park at Palazzo

Blue Roc Premier sourced for their investors Victoria Landing, a 352-unit multifamily community in Lakeland, Fla., from Mercury Investment, for $50 million. The deal was facilitated by Cushman & Wakefield. The property was rebranded as The Park at Palazzo after the sale.

“Right now, this type of property is highly sought after by investors,” Luis Elorza, Cushman & Wakefield’s senior director capital markets group in Florida, told MHN. “There’s a great deal of interest in value-add properties right now and there are value-add opportunities with properties built in the 80s, 90s, and 2000s. There is very strong interest in all of those.”

Since the property was built in 2007, Elorza noted that it’s on the newer end of the value space. “It has the bones of a newer property but it allows a new owner, with a reasonable amount of capital, to step in and make it compete with newly built property,” he said. “That created a very strong interest in the property.”

Amenities Second to None

Located at 3685 Victoria Manor Drive, The Park at Palazzo offers one-, two- and three-bedroom units with an average size of 1,089 square feet. Units boast walk-in closets, full-size washers and dryers, garden tubs, ceramic tile and some units have detached garages, microwaves, dens and walk-in showers.

“This property has over-the-top amenities,” Elorza said. “It has a full air-conditioned basketball court, an amazing fitness center and pool area. When it was built, it was a trend setter in high-level amenities.”

There’s also a business center, sand volleyball court, car care facility, gaming room with a billiards table, a yoga/meditation room, two dog parks and a pet washing station.

Mercury Investment acquired the property in April of 2014, and Elorza served as the broker for that deal as well.

“The strong interest in this deal stems from its location—it’s in between Tampa and Orlando, both highly sought after right now,” Elorza said. “The property is just off Interstate 4 with good drive times to both cities. Lakeland has great access to Orlando and Tampa and benefits from proximity to both areas as well.”

The garden-style property was 98 percent leased at the time of sale. Mercury Investment had done some improvements when needed to maintain the property during its ownership, but the buyer has a core-related value-add plan ready to go.

“The owner was very familiar with the market and when you are selling to someone who knows the market and owns in the market, it is a clear indication of the value in that market,” Elorza said.

Joining Elorza on the deal were Cushman & Wakefield’s Brad Capas and Robert Given.

In September, Blue Roc Premier listed The Park at Ravenna, a 242,490-square-foot apartment community in Tampa for sale.  

Image courtesy of Cushman & Wakefield