2017 Top Deals: Sarasota-Manatee

Business Observer
December 29, 2017
By Kevin McQuaid

Following a trajectory it set in 2016, sales of multifamily rental projects led all other asset classes in both Sarasota and Manatee counties in 2017.

Of the Top Five deals in the submarket, four were for apartment complexes. In 2016, three transactions made the Top Five.

Unlike in 2016, though, when 60% of the total dollar volume of the Top Five deals was the result of apartment transactions, in 2017 that figure jumped to 86%.

Analysts say apartment sales have been driven by a relative lack of new supply and steady gains in population, even as home ownership rates have fallen in Florida and throughout the U.S.

In keeping with the two-year trend, too, the apartment purchases in 2017 were made by large, national firms like Continental Properties Co. Inc., Northland Investment Corp. and Advenir Inc., all of whom have been seeking to increase market share and solidify positions for future balance sheet growth — the result of incremental rent hikes that have been a feature of the market since 2015.

1 Echo Lake Apartments: $76.1 million

Northland Investment Corp. followed its $112.4 million deal for the 35-story Element tower in downtown Tampa two weeks later by acquiring Echo Lake Apartments in Lakewood Ranch.

The 360-unit complex, which was completed in May, contains 12 buildings on 41 acres.

Matthew Gottesdiener, Northland’s chief investment officer, calls Echo Lake “one of the nicest garden-style, luxury apartment communities in the state of Florida.”

Echo Lake, which was 93% occupied at the time of Northland’s purchase, features a 3.5-acre park, a state-of-the-art fitness center, saltwater swimming pool and community garden plots among its amenities.

Throughout Florida, Northland now owns nearly three dozen apartment communities containing nearly 10,000 units.

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