La Via Units Sell for $55,000 Each

(Carl Cronan is editor of Real Estate Florida.)

BOCA RATON, FL-A foreign investor has purchased 26 units at the La Via Condominium complex in Pembroke Pines for just over $1.4 million, or $55,000 per unit, in an all-cash transaction. Atlanta-based Apartment Realty Advisors Inc., which arranged the sale, expects to see more such fractured condo purchases throughout Florida in the coming year.

“We will see more all-cash deals from both local and foreign investors,” Avery Klann, senior vice president of ARA’s Florida division office in Boca Raton, tells GlobeSt.com. He says offshore investors are seeking opportunities within the US multifamily sector while domestic buyers are having difficulty arranging financing during the ongoing credit freeze.

Shaoul Mishal, president of Israel-based Gamla-Cedron Group, bought the remaining units at La Via, which amount to roughly 10% of the 250 total units on site. The former Green Key apartment complex was converted to condos in 2005 and all other units were sold over the past three years, at $230,000 each, to owner-occupants, buyers renting out their units and absentee investors.

Klann says Mishal was attracted to the opportunity to buy the block of La Via units, at a discount of at least 75%, because they are more than 90% occupied. He says the new owner plans to rent out the units and sell them at a later date.

Klann, a member of ARA’s Distressed Assets Solutions Group and one of last year’s Broker All-Stars in Real Estate Florida magazine, says lenders and developers are driving fractured-condo sales statewide. Buyers who can bring cash to deals and close quickly have an advantage, he adds.

“This is one of several transactions where we have recently sourced unique, foreign-based buyers that are now capitalizing on the tremendous buying opportunities in multifamily product throughout Florida,” says Marc deBaptiste, one of ARA Florida’s founding partners. ARA has posted average annual volume of $6.3 billion over the past five years.