Jamestown COO and managing director Matt Bronfman says the asset in this Miami suburb at 17094 Collins Ave. is a good "bread-and-butter" complex in a good location that fell on hard times. Seller Sky Development in Aventura, FL had acquired Vista View some years ago and made improvements with an eye toward condo conversion. When the condo market crashed, however, things changed.

"In the way a lot of things are today, the lender was in the process of trying to take the title, and it was mired in one of those classic disputes," Bronfman tells GlobeSt.com. "We stepped in, took out the debt, and bought it." This is the way many deals are being done, especially in a lender-borrower stalemate he goes on to say; it requires fresh capital and an ability to get the transaction completed.

The occupancy of the just-renamed Beach Place is more than 80% and Bronfman says Jamestown is analyzing what types of upgrades can, and should, be made to the asset. JMG Realty Inc.'s Florida office has the property management assignment.

Beach Place is Jamestown's second Florida asset; it also owns the 228-unit Tradition at Kendall in Kendall, FL, another Miami suburb. Bronfman acknowledges that Jamestown likes South Florida, but has been avoiding it for the past several years because of overvaluation. Now, however, is a good time to seek out good investments.

Bronfman goes on to say that the company will look at just about anything, though the sweet spot includes broken condo deals, residential, some hotels and urban retail. Value-add is also on the radar, so long as improvement leads to an opportunistic yield. "We have a good pipeline right now," Bronfman adds. "There are about 15 to 20 deals we're looking at in New York and Florida."