Bradenton's Palms at Cortez apartments sell for $6.3 million
BRADENTON -- An aging apartment complex near the DeSoto Square mall has, like many other multifamily properties of late, sold for a premium as rental vacancies sit near an all-time low.
The Palms at Cortez, a six-building, two-story apartment community at 3810 5th St. E., sold for $6.3 million on March 22. The seller was The Focus Group, a La Jolla, Calif., real estate investment firm that has about 20 multifamily properties in its commercial portfolio.
The buyer was a company related to Asia Capital Real Estate Partners of Ponte Verda, state records show.
Focus walks away from the transaction with a return on its initial investment. The company purchased the Palms at Cortez in late 2011 for $4.65 million. County permit records show the company did little in the way of upgrades and improvements to the property. Work it did complete included changing out air conditioning equipment for two units.
The sale comes as rental rates for multifamily units hit a five-year high in the last
quarter of 2015. The Palms at Cortez offers only two-bedroom units. They rent for about $1,000 per month, according to the management company that operates the property. The complex has no vacancies among its 92 units.
A report compiled by the Sarasota office of Coldwell Banker Commercial NRT shows that the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Manatee County was $1,063 per month at the end of last year. That compares to a five-year average of $904.
The vacancy rate across all sizes of multifamily units is 3.1 percent in Manatee County. The five-year average is 4.2 percent.
Sellers have been taking advantage of the low vacancy rates and high rents to sell their properties at a profit. Tim Becker, director of the Bergstrom Center for Real Estate Studies at the University of Florida, said property owners selling now are likely looking ahead at the possibility of climbing interest rates. That, he said, could reduce the number of potential buyers.
Focus officials did not respond to a request to comment on the sale.
Other recent Manatee County apartment transactions include the $43 million sale of the Vista at Palma Sola Apartments on Dec. 21, a $70 million deal in January that put the former TGM Yacht Club Apartments under new ownership, and the $39.25 million sale of the Sawgrass Cove Apartments on Jan. 28.
Matt M. Johnson, Herald business reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7027 or on Twitter @MattAtBradenton.
This story was originally published March 30, 2016 at 10:10 PM with the headline "Bradenton's Palms at Cortez apartments sell for $6.3 million ."