Waypoint Residential buys $4.35M home for University Groves apartments

Waypoint Residential buys $4.35M home for University Groves apartments

MANATEE -- An apartment development and investment company has paid $4.35 million for nearly 10 acres near University Parkway slated to be the location of 180 new apartments.

According to the buyer's representative, work will start immediately to bring the "Class A" property to market in the University Groves neighborhood. The complex will be named Bella Grove.

Waypoint Residential, a Connecticut company that owns apartment properties in seven southern states, closed on the purchase Oct. 30, 15 months after it put the property at 3415 Broadway Ave. under contract.

Its six-building apartment complex will occupy ground originally entitled for office space. University Groves Property, the seller, had owned the land since the mid 2000s, having purchased it for about $3.7 million, according to Manatee County property records.

Managed by former W.G. Mills Construction principals Lem Sharp III and Walter Mills, according to state records, the company has been developing commercial land in the Broadway/University area for several years.

Lee DeLieto Jr., a commercial real estate agent with Michael Saunders & Co. and the listing agent for the property, said both buyer and seller were motivated to make the apartment project work. Both went to Manatee County to petition for a land use change from commercial to multifamily. That change was approved, as was a site plan for the apartments.

DeLieto said building apartments makes sense in the current real estate market. Apartment vacancy rates in Manatee and Sarasota counties are as low as they have been in five years, hovering around 3 percent. While the apartments will not be on nearby Lockwood Ridge Road or University Boulevard, DeLieto said the relative scarcity of new rental units puts them in demand wherever they are.

The Broadway Avenue property puts the planned lakefront apartments in the midst of other housing and a growing business district.

"They found a value in being in a more scenic area," DeLieto said.

On the market since 2011, the Broadway Avenue property is at the center of a spate of new development. Directly to the west, national home builder DR Horton is building its 66-home Soleil East neighborhood. It is part the builder's larger Soleil subdivision.

South of Waypoint's apartment project, a number of new commercial projects, including Culvers and Dunkin Donuts and a Tire Kingdom auto service shop, have been open for at least a year.

Ryan Moody, a commercial real estate agent with ReMax Commercial in Orlando, represented Waypoint in the transaction along with agency partner Juan Carlos. Moody said his client intends to bring its apartment complex to market as quickly as possible.

According to its website, Waypoint owns five apartment complexes in Florida. Its new project will be its first in the Bradenton, Sarasota and Tampa areas.

Matt M. Johnson, Herald business reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7027 or on Twitter@MattAtBradenton.

This story was originally published November 10, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Waypoint Residential buys $4.35M home for University Groves apartments ."