936-Unit Gulfstream Isles Goes On Sales Block

FORT MYERS, FL-TGM Associates has put the Gulfstream Isles multifamily property up for sale. In its efforts to sell the complex, the New York City-based pension fund advisory has hired JBM Realty Advisors to market the 936-unit multifamily complex at 1601 Red Cedar Dr. It is the last remaining large-scale condo conversion opportunity on the west coast south of Tampa to Naples, according to JBM.

Jack McCabe, CEO of McCabe Research and Consulting in Deerfield Beach, agrees. "This is definitely the largest multifamily offering for condo conversion on the Gulf Coast and one of the five largest in the state to date," McCabe tells GlobeSt.com. JBM has no offering price, and McCabe says, "I'm not surprised. Due to the increasing number of bidders, it behooves developers and brokers to leave the list price open. An asking price could limit what the highest bid might be."

"Thus far this year, home prices here have risen 40%," Jamie May, JBM's chairman and CEO, tells GlobeSt.com. May and JBM senior directors Eric Ammon and Carlos Berner are marketing the property.

McCabe says Florida has eight of the top 10 markets of highest housing appreciation in the country and says the Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Punta Gorda area is among them. As for pricing of multifamily properties for condo conversion in Fort Myers, so far this year BF Group has acquired two multifamily properties here for condo conversion. It paid $98,397 a unit for Grand at Gateway and $104,333 a unit for Colony Place.

"I hesitate to put a selling price on this one," McCabe says, "we've seen so many surprises in record-breaking sales. It will definitely be a price tag of over $100 million," he predicts, which would take it more than $2,000-a-unit above BF Group's price for Colony Place. "Due to the sheer size and projected per-unit price [of Gulfstream Isles], however, there will be a limited number of heavy-hitter buyers."

Gulfstream Isles consists of 39 three-story buildings aggregating 892,000 sf of rentable area on approximately 38.8 acres. The complex was constructed in three phases between 1987 and 1991 and is 98% occupied. There are 11 different unit floor plans of which more than half, 57%, are two-bedroom, two-bath layouts ranging from 1,000 sf to 1,500 sf; 38% are one-bedroom units from 650 sf to 750 sf, and the remaining 6% are three-bedroom, two-bath layouts of 1,350 sf.