WEST PALM BEACH-Irvine, CA-based Atherton-Newport LLC has acquired the 192-unit County Lake Apartments at 6010 Sherwood Glen Way for $16.5 million. The seller, Homes for America, was represented in the transaction by Peter Mekras, of Miami-based Aztec Group. Atherton-Newport represented itself.

Built in 1985, the property sits on 24 acres and contains 24 two-story apartment buildings and one clubhouse/leasing office. The company is planning to spend $1.8 million on interior and exterior capital improvements, such as exterior building painting, leasing office renovation, landscape improvements and repair of parking lots, fences, gates, tennis and basketball courts, roofs, stucco and landings. In addition, 16 units which have been unoccupied since fall 2005 due to damage by Hurricane Wilma will be refurbished and brought to market. Atherton-Newport closed on the sale a few weeks ago and has not yet started renovation work.

"It's our standard operating procedure," Atherton-Newport East Coast acquisitions director Nicholas Lizotte tells GlobeSt.com. "We're taking an older property with deferred maintenance, doing some work on it, and returning it to market."

This is Atherton-Newport's third acquisition of a multifamily property in Florida. Earlier this year, the company acquired two multifamily properties in Miami for $26.7 and $15.4 million. The company is planning to acquire 1,700 units in South Florida over the next year.

"Palm Beach County has exceptionally strong market fundamentals, as well as a rapidly expanding population that is underserved by the existing rental market," Lizotte says.

Lizotte adds that the company will continue to seek acquisitions in the Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties. "We will continue to look in the three major counties for properties that are older properties, class B or C, that have deferred maintenance and where there's significant value-add opportunity," he says.