GlobeSt.com EXCLUSIVE: Park Central Apartments Trade for $150M

ORLANDO-Taking advantage of a frenzied buyer home market and sustaining low interest rates, New York-based RAK Acquisition Group has purchased the 1,081-unit, one-million-sf Park Central apartment compound in south Orlando for $150 million or $138,760 per unit and $137.25 per sf.

The 58.7-acre complex sold for $88 million last year. The deal is the largest of its kind to date in the area, according to GlobeSt.com research. The property is one mile north of the 1.3-million-sf Mall of Millenia. The seller was Bainbridge Communities of Wellington.

Kevin B. Judd, senior vice president, Apartment Realty Advisors, Boca Raton, who headed the negotiating team for the seller, tells GlobeSt.com RAK plans to convert all 1,081 apartments to condos but hasn’t decided when the conversion will start and at what prices the units will sell for. RAK officials represented their company without a broker.

Judd says Park Central was on the market for only a month and the deal took 45 days to complete, from contract signing to closing. “When you figure in the normal due diligence period and the fact that two parcels of land had to be taken out of the deal before closing, this was a very quick transaction, given the size of the property,” Judd tells GlobeSt.com.

The three communities comprising Park Central are the 440-unit Belmont, built in 1994, with an average base rent of $878 per month; the 413-unit Charles Towne, built in 1998 with an average rent of $954; and the 228-unit Manor Row, completed in 2000 with an average rent of $1,080. The property has one, two and three-bedroom apartments, along with loft homes.

Park Central amenities include a 14,000-sf field house with a full-size indoor gymnasium, private restaurant and sports bar, a 10,000-sf clubhouse and a 5,700-sf fitness center.

Hypo Real Estate Capital Corp., the New York-based subsidiary of Hypo Real Estate Bank International, is funding RAK’s acquisition with a $150.3-million loan. Terms of the loan were not disclosed.