North Carolina Investor Drops $94M on Boca Raton Apartments

A Greensboro, North Carolina-based multifamily investor-manager bought two Boca Raton communities for $94.25 million with plans to combine the next-door developments into a 270-unit complex.

Bell Partners Inc. bought The Lumin for $56.5 million and The Cade for $37.75 million, and will merge them into Bell at Broken Sound. The acquisitions closed Oct. 26 with the deed becoming public on Friday.

The Bell at Broken Sound reflects the location at The Park at Broken Sound, a 700-acre residential, office, retail and hospitality planned development. It’s home to major employers, including the Office Depot headquarters. The Park at Broken Sound is northwest of Interstate 95 and Yamato Road.

Bell Partners acquired the apartment communities on behalf of investors in its Fund VII, an apartment investment vehicle that by June secured $950 million in equity commitments.

The Lumin is a 214,166-square-foot property with 180 apartments on nine acres at 5500 Broken Sound Blvd., according to the Palm Beach County property appraiser’s office.

DIV Mainstreet 5500 Broken Sound JV LLC, an affiliate of Fort Lauderdale-based Mainstreet Capital Partners, sold Lumin after developing the community in 2018. Mainstreet bought the site, which had two industrial buildings at the time in 2015, for $8.5 million.

The Cade is a 168,256-square-foot townhouse community with 90 units on five acres at 950 NW Broken Sound Parkway.

BR NCC Boca Apok Owner LLC, an affiliate of New York-based Bluerock Real Estate LLC, sold Cade after completing it last year. Bluerock bought the site in 2016 for $4 million.

The communities are on the southeast corner of Broken Sound Parkway Northwest and Broken Sound Boulevard Northwest and adjacent to the Canon Solutions America office at The Park at Broken Sound.

Kary Nordholz, senior vice president of investments at Bell Partners, in a statement said Boca Raton is a leading South Florida employment center and offers “excellent retail amenities and highly rated schools.”

Merging Lumin and Cade into one property will save on operating expenses and create more value for the fund investors, Nordholz added.

The fund has domestic and international investors, including some from Bell’s previous fund. The company is focusing on value-add multifamily in 14 locations, including Dallas, Seattle and Washington, D.C., according to a Bell news release. The latest fund can make more than $2.5 billion in investments with leverage.

Bell at Broken Sound offers one-, two- and three-bedroom units with monthly rents ranging from $1,800 to $3,782, according to its website.

Units have quartz countertops, wood-finished vinyl floors, a washer and dryer. Some units have direct-access garages. The combination of Lumin and Cade means the new Bell at Broken Sound will have two pools, two gyms, two conference rooms and a lounge.

The aggregate acquisition price is $349,074 per unit — $419,444 for Cade and $313,889 for Lumin.

Bell at Broken Sound is Bell Partners’ eighth South Florida community. Its other Boca Raton property is Bell Boca Town Center at 5881 Town Bay Dr. The company has more than 60,000 units under management in the U.S.