TAMPA, FL-In yet another year-end multifamily deal in the Tampa Bay area, the Isles of Gateway has traded for $16.82 million. The 212-unit apartment community is located in St. Petersburg’s Gateway submarket.

CBRE senior vice presidents John Selby and Jim Bobbitt, who lead the CBRE Multi-Housing Group team in Tampa, brokered the deal for CAPREIT, which owns and manages multifamily housing communities across the US. Robbins Property Associates snapped up the asset. The acquisition was financed with a new seven-year Freddie Mac loan.

“The Gateway submarket is one of the Tampa Bay area’s best performing submarkets with an average occupancy of 93.5% compared to the overall metro area occupancy of 92.7%,” Selby tells GlobeSt.com. “Additionally, rents in the Gateway submarket average just over $800 a month while the average rental rates at Isles of Gateway were approximately $920 a month at the time of sale.”

Built in 1987, the gated community sits on an 18-acre site and features one-, two- and three-bedroom units totaling 173,820 rentable square feet. Amenities include a clubhouse with fitness center, a resort-style pool and spa, lighted tennis courts, basketball courts, sand volleyball, a children’s playground, dog park, picnic area and car center. The Isles of Gateway was 95% occupied.

Bobbitt tells GlobeSt.com the price per unit for the Isles of Gateway set the high-water mark for recent class B asset transactions in the Tampa Bay area. That, he says, is due to its desirable location along 4th Street in the Gateway area and the excellent condition of a property of this vintage.  

A Newton, MA-based investment company, Robbins Property has been very active in the Florida markets over the previous two years. The firm is planning a minor renovation program that includes some exterior improvements as well as a continued interior renovation program previously initiated by the seller.

“The property provides the new owner the opportunity to increase revenue through the interior renovation program,” Bobbitt says. “Approximately 92 units had previously had interior renovations completed by the seller and were obtaining rental premiums of $85 a month. The buyer plans to continue this renovation program of the remaining 120 units.”