MAITLAND, FL-Howell Branch Apartments, a 32-building, 368-unit multifamily property on a 19-acre campus at 2105 Howell Branch Rd., has changed hands. General Real Estate Corp. of Miami paid the Praedium Group LLC and Affirmative Equities Co. LP, both of New York, $31.5 million or $85,948 per unit for the 96%-leased, two-story properties.
In February 2004, the sellers bought the 36-year-old, 343,000-sf property from Fletcher Bright Properties of Atlanta for $15.95 million or $43,579 per unit, as GlobeSt.com previously reported. At that time, Robert W. Miller, senior vice president in the Orlando office of CB Richard Ellis Inc., told GlobeSt.com the closing per-sf price was a record in Central Florida for a garden-style apartment property built prior to 1980 and one that had not undergone a major rehab or become a condo conversion.
When Praedium and Affirmative bought Howell Branch Station two years ago, occupancy was 87%, says Praedium vice president Mark Lippmann. He credits the re-sale of Howell Branch Apartments to his partners' extensive renovations and capital improvements program at the property. Those changes included the conversion of 80 studio units to one-bedroom apartments.
Affirmative Equities president Andrew Jubelt says the "highly successful conversion demonstrated the demand for high-end rentals and subsequently condos in the [Orlando] area." Maitland is about five miles north of Downtown Orlando.
Lippmann says Praedium is investing its most recent $700-million real estate private equity fund, Praedium Fund VI. He says this equity will be leveraged to acquire more than $2 billion in properties.This was Praedium's fourth transaction in Florida with Affirmative Equities. The properties were managed and repositioned through a related company, Affirmative Arco Management Group LLC.
© Touchpoint Markets, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to asset-and-logo-licensing@alm.com. For more inforrmation visit Asset & Logo Licensing.