BF Affiliate Pays $300M for Six-Property Portfolio

COCONUT CREEK, FL-Prestige Builders Partners, an affiliate of Miami-based BF Group and one of South Florida's most prolific condo converters, pays just more than $300.3 million, or approximately $198,448 a unit, for a six-property multifamily portfolio aggregating 1,513 units in three locations. The seller is locally based Minto Builders.

The portfolio contains the 168-unit CrownPointe at the Township, 372-unit ForestPointe at the Township and 192-unit StarPointe at the Township here, along with the 288-unit Spring Harbor and 200-unit Spring Landing in Delray Beach, and 293-unit Tuscany Place in Plantation. The properties were completed between 1986 and 1990, according to Avery Klann, VP in the Boca Raton office of Denver-based Apartment Realty Advisors. Klann and Marc deBaptiste, an ARA principal in that office, represented Minto and also procured the buyer.

"The portfolio was on the market for about a month," Klann tells GlobeSt.com, "and we received about 150 offers or about 25 offers per property. Bids came from Florida condo converters, from California and elsewhere with a few from overseas." He says ARA marketed the assets in three combinations--two in Delray Beach, three here and one in Plantation--plus the full portfolio, "in a highly competitive bidding process. The three locations are among the most dynamic for-sale housing markets, and properties have been meticulously maintained."

Occupancy throughout the portfolio "is very close to 100%," he says. The majority of the units are two- and three-bedroom layouts. Calls to Prestige, whose principals are Jose Boschetti, Martin Caparros and Arthur Falcone, were not returned by deadline; however, a spokesman for Prestige and BF confirmed the closing of this transaction.

This is ARA's largest multifamily sale this year, according to Klann, and Jack McCabe, CEO of McCabe Research & Consulting in Deerfield Beach, confirms, saying, "here we go again, calling a transaction the largest and most expensive to date." Yet, this is "by no means the highest price per unit," McCabe tells GlobeSt.com. "While these are well-built, well-maintained assets in great locations, they are all 15 to 19 years old and not of the newer luxury designs, which puts them in the B, B+ class," he says. "Many class A properties have been cherry-picked. I believe we're reaching the summit for [class B] price-per-unit sales, and I expect the prices to level off and slow down." According to his firm's research, he says BF has acquired more than 12,000 units in less than a year.