ORLANDO-America First Apartment Investors Inc. of Omaha has closed on the $33-million sale of St. Andrews at Westwood Apartments to Miami-based condo converter TCG Acquisitions Inc., as GlobeSt.com reported Sept. 15.
Taking advantage of a sizzling condo conversion market in Florida, the Nebraska equity REIT plans to record a fourth-quarter gain of about $20 million on the sale, company CEO John H. Cassidy says in a prepared statement.
"While our strategy calls for us to grow our portfolio, we also will aggressively pursue opportunities to enhance profitability through asset dispositions when market conditions warrant," Cassidy says. "In this case, the trend in Florida favoring condominium conversion created the opportunity that we capitalized on."
TCG Acquisitions paid $127,413 per unit for the 15-building property at 11500 Westwood Blvd. in south Orlando. America First had owned the 95%-leased asset for eight years. The property was on the market for four months.
In other unrelated activities, the REIT will be paying shareholders of record on Dec. 30 a regular quarterly dividend of 25 cents per share on Jan. 31, 2006. The company has also hired James Egan as chief investment officer. The 41-year-old professional comes to America First from ING Clarion Partners in New York where he was senior vice president for development. Egan also has worked at DRA Advisors in New York where he was director of acquisitions and development.
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