TODAY’S DEALS: Atlas Residential Completes Largest Orlando Apartment Acquisition Year-to-Date

Crowntree Lakes

Orlando, Fla.—A two-property portfolio in Orlando has traded hands for $150 million. Alexandria Parc Vue and Crowntree Lakes total 1,024 units, and the sale of this duo represents the largest by price and unit count in the metropolitan area for 2014 according to the seller’s broker, CBRE Capital Markets. While CBRE is only saying that the seller was a large owner-operator, the buyer was disclosed to be Texas-headquartered Atlas Residential, the re-branded platform of Alliance Holdings.

“This market-leading transaction serves as a testament to the desirability of the Central Florida market, and to the viability of the multifamily sector here. Rent growth is continuing to beat the expectations of property owners and managers,” says Shelton Granade, executive vice president of CBRE Capital Markets, multifamily. “Rents in Orlando are forecasted to increase 3.5 percent to 4 percent each year for the next five years, and average occupancy should hold very strong in the 94 percent to 95 percent range.”

Crowntree Lakes is located at 5759 Crowntree Lane, which is between East Orlando’s two largest employment centers—Medical City at Lake Nona and the University of Central Florida. The 352-unit community has an amenity package featuring a swimming pool with sundeck, Wi-Fi in common areas, a 24-hour fitness center, theater room billiards room, outdoor kitchen, a playground, dog park and gated entrance. Units include granite countertops, GE appliances and walk-in closets.

Alexandria Parc Vue

Alexandria Parc Vue is a 672-unit community located less than a mile from Disney World at 10649 Bastille Lane. It features four resort-style pools, a business center, two fitness centers, a clubhouse, outdoor grill, car care center, playground, tennis courts and a game room with flat-screen televisions.

CBRE’s Shelton Granade, Robert Given, Luke Wickham, and Justin Basquill exclusively represented the seller in the transaction, and have closed more than $1.4 billion in apartment sales in Central Florida since 2013 to date.

AIMS Real Estate, Carroll Organization buy waterfront apartments in Palm Beach County

Mariner’s Key

Lake Park, Fla.—A joint venture between AIMS Real Estate, a business unit of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, and Carroll Organization has acquired a 208-unit luxury waterfront community in Lake Park, Fla. Mariner’s Key Lake Park is classified as a ‘Class AAA’ apartment asset by the Boca Raton office of ARA, which brokered the sale on behalf of the seller, a New York-based institution.

The property was originally built in 1965, though it received a complete gut renovation and repositioning from 2007 to 2010. The process included stripping the buildings down to their concrete shells in order to bring them up to the current hurricane code. At the time of sale Mariner’s Key was 95 percent occupied.

Mariner’s Key

“Mariner’s Key is a one-of-a-kind community with million-dollar views and for-sale unit finishes,” notes lead ARA advisor Avery Klann. “The community is one of the few rental properties in South Florida offering unobstructed, direct views of the Intracoastal Waterway and a marina.”

Mariner’s Key is located minutes from the major employment centers in the suburban areas of the North Palm Beach submarket, and is only 10 minutes from the downtown West Palm Beach Central Business District. Amenities include a clubhouse, private sandy beach area overlooking the intracoastal waterway, a heated pool and spa, outdoor kitchen, 17-slip on-site marina, a fitness center, sauna, his/her locker rooms with showers, a pet park and a business center.

Cohen Financial secures $12.6M in joint venture equity for Florida development

Miami—Cohen Financial announced that it has secured a $12.6 million joint venture equity investment for Le Sereno, a development to-be-built by principals Fernando Levy Hara and Stephan Gietl of mckafka Development Group and Don Paxton and Tom Settle, principals of Beneficial Communities. Le Sereno, which is currently undergoing a branding transformation, will feature 282-apartments in a community located at Electric Blvd off of Fruitville Road in Sarasota, Fla. Development of Le Sereno is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2015 with a projected completion date of summer 2016.

Daniel Sheehan and Kevin O’Grady, both senior managing directors, and Eric McGlynn, director of Cohen Financial’s Equity Practice, secured the equity investment with mckafka Development Group, a Florida-based real estate development and management firm. The joint venture partner, Beneficial Communities, is a Sarasota-based regional apartment developer. The joint venture closed on September 25, 2014.

“We have worked with mckafka Development Group on numerous transactions and believe they are an excellent partner for Beneficial Communities,” says Sheehan. “Together they will create a first-class project that is positioned to achieve top-of-market rents.”

Currently developing The Crimson Residences, a 90-unit boutique waterfront development in Edgewater, Levy Hara and Gietl are foreshadowing the uprising of the Sarasota real estate market and have decided to go west to develop this rental apartment community.

“Due to our long standing relationship with Cohen Financial we are pleased to be embarking on our next venture with them,” explains Levy Hara, CEO of Aventura-based mckafka Development Group. “Through our joint venture partnership we are pleased to be bringing to fruition a unique development to the Sarasota area,” adds Gietl.