Miami Investor Makes Second Apartment Deal in Tampa

Attorney Neil Rollnick, a partner at Hinshaw & Culbertson in Coral Gables, closed the $30 million purchase of a garden-style community in Tampa's Wellswood neighborhood.

Hinshaw & Culbertson partner Neil Rollnick in Miami. Courtesy photo

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A Miami real estate investor bought a garden-style multifamily community in Tampa for $29.5 million, his second acquisition in the city in as many years.

Jakub Hejl, president and founder of Westside Capital Group, bought the riverfront Westshore Crossing from an affiliate of Dallas-based Atlantic Housing Foundation Inc., a nonprofit developer and operator of housing focusing on affordable and student residences.

Attorney Neil Rollnick, who led legal matters for Hejl on the deal that closed Sept. 13, said the deal required the removal of restrictions that came with the property.

“In addition to securing the removal of land-use limitations, there were complex title, tax and documentation issues,” Rollnick, partner at Hinshaw & Culbertson in Coral Gables, said in a news release.

“Rollnick took the lead on all legal matters of this transaction as he has done for other real estate transactions for Westside Capital Group,” Hejl said by email. “He was instrumental in handling legal and nonlegal due diligence and being involved to help us make the appropriate decision on this complex acquisition.”

Westshore Crossing, previously Watermans Crossing, has 20 buildings on 13 acres northeast of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and North Rome Road in the Wellswood working-class neighborhood. It has 337 units, yielding a per-unit price of $87,537 per unit.

The acquisition was financed by a $26.25 million loan obtained by Berkadia in Miami.

Hejl plans to invest $5 million in unit and amenity improvements. There also is an opportunity to add 72 units.

The property sits on the Hillsborough River a mile from St. Joseph’s Hospital and two miles from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Raymond James Stadium and Al Lopez Park.

The complex at 4515 N. Rome Ave. has studios as well as one-, two- and three-bedroom units averaging 895 square feet. It has three pools, a clubhouse, gym and 876 parking spots.

Last year, Hejl’s Westside Capital bought the 240-unit Buena Vista apartments less than a mile away and also invested $5 million in improvements.

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