TAMPA, FL—Canadian investors are still taking a liking to Florida commercial real estate. Rosdev Group, a Montreal, Canada-based firm, just snapped up The Park at Coventry, a multifamily complex in Tampa, FL, for $16.7 million.

“Thanks to a rebounding market, our client swooped in when the upside potential was greatest,” Ira Zlotowitz, president of Eastern Union Funding, tells GlobeSt.com. “The Florida market is proving itself to be highly promising right now, as this is Eastern's third deal there in a month. We will continue to move according to the drumbeat of the robust market.”    

Park at Coventry is a 320-unit multifamily community located near University of South Florida and the H. Lee Moffit Cancer and Research Center. Blue Rock Partners will manage the multifamily property. Eastern Union Funding brokered the deal for Rosdev in less than 30 days.

Zlotowitz and Meir Kessner, the firm's senior managing director, arranged a seven-year financing deal with Arbor Commercial Mortgage. The loan terms are 2.784% and covers 80% of the borrower's costs without recourse.

“The terms and overall speed of this loan put us in a powerful position,” Randy Moses, director of acquisitions for Rosdev, tells GlobeSt.com. “The property is already a strong asset, and this gives us the flexibility to maximize its upside even further.”

Call it an invasion from the Great White North. Commercial real estate investors and developers—even Canadian banks—have a growing appetite to buy, build or lend against all asset classes in many US markets.

Yes, what started out long ago with individuals scooping up residential properties in warmer US climates has become a full-blown commercial real estate trend that's gaining momentum faster than the winter snow melts across the border in springtime. Some Canadians are even jokingly referring to the US as “the 11th province.”

“For several years now, Canadian investors—both institutional and private—have been gobbling up US commercial properties at break-neck speed,” Dan Carlo, principal with Avison Young and managing director of the Toronto-based firm's Miami office, tells GlobeSt.com. “Canadians, as a whole, have been the most active foreign investors in US real estate every year since 2010, and were never far behind before that. In fact, Canadian investors represented nearly one-third of the aggregate $90.6 billion that international buyers invested in US real estate during 2010 to 2013.”