TAMPA, FL-A private local investor has acquired Reflections, a 264-unit apartment complex in Carrollwood, for $13 million. The seller was Jackson Square Properties, a San Francisco-based privately-held real estate operating company.

Sean Lance, managing director and president of the Troubled Asset Optimization practice at NAI TampaBay, tells GlobeSt.com the $13 million price tag is in line with other class B and class C multifamily projects in the Tampa Bay area.

“This sale is part of the year-end flurry of multifamily activity that we typically see,” Lance says. “Investors are trying to get deals done and banks are trying to get deals off their balance sheet. We have a number of closings lined up in the last days of 2010.”

Kevin Judd, Patrick Dufour, and Dick Donnellan of Atlanta-based ARA, a full-service investment advisory brokerage firm, represented the seller in the transaction. Reflections has averaged occupancy rates well over 90% for the past three years in one of the most mature, desirable Tampa submarkets.

“The buyer is very familiar with the Tampa market and owns several properties in the immediate area,” says Dufour, ARA Florida's Tampa-based vice president. “They believe in Tampa’s underlying fundamentals long-term and see significant upside in the market in the near term.”

Built in 1982, Reflections offers a mix of one- and two-bedroom floor plans with an average unit size of 729 square feet. Jackson Square Properties upgraded several unit interiors and is seeing rent premiums for those units.
 
“Reflections at Carrollwood provides the buyer with excellent in-place cash flow and the ability to increase rents through overall market recovery and continuing the interior upgrade program,” says Judd, ARA’s Orlando-based principal. “The buyer had to assume two loans from Fannie Mae, both with favorable interest-only financing,”
 
Reflections is located in the heart of the Carrollwood submarket, with access to major employment centers, shopping and entertainment venues. Individual units at the property feature fully-equipped kitchens, walk-in closets, screened patios or balconies and additional storage. Community features include clubhouse, pool, fitness center and business center.

“There’s no shortage of money chasing deals right now,” Lance says. “We’ve also had some apartment developers starting to sniff around recently. In the second half of 2011 you might see some land sales for apartment development. But there are still plenty of distressed deals that have a lot of hair on them from deferred maintenance and mismanagement to wade through.”