Channel district fractured condo tower up for sale
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: May 27, 2015

The rental units in The Slade, a residential tower in downtown Tampa's Channel district, are being marketed for a bulk sale.

The Slade - which is at the intersection of North Meridian Avenue and East Washington Street - is a fractured condominium because the majority of the building's units are operated as apartments, owned by Miami Beach-based Crescent Heights. The remaining units are owned by individuals.

A team of brokers from HFF LP in Tampa, led by director Matt Mitchell, is marketing 214 of The Slade's 294 units for sale for Crescent Heights, according to marketing materials for the property. The other 80 units in the building are individually owned.

Of Crescent Heights' 214 units, the average size is 935 square feet, according to the marketing materials. The building commands rents of $1.80 per square foot. Mitchell said HFF is seeing a lot of interest in the property - some from investors who would operate it as rentals and some who would start selling units "in the near to mid-term."

"There is a shared belief among investors that both the rental and for-sale markets in downtown Tampa and Channelside are in a position to experience significant growth," Mitchell wrote in an email.

Mitchell declined comment on why Crescent Heights was selling the units in bulk. The group bought the units out of foreclosure in 2011, according to Hillsborough County property records.

Crescent Heights is known for converting apartments to condominiums, but The Slade wouldn't be a conversion - it's already a condominium building, with individually deeded units.

Selling the units to individual homebuyers would have been a more likely exit strategy for a group like Crescent Heights. But given some of the prices commanded by other apartment buildings in recent months, the group may see more immediate potential profit in selling them off in bulk.

Crescent Bayshore - developed by North Carolina-based Crescent Communities - sold for more than $111 million in late 2014, setting a new high benchmark for Tampa apartments. Commercial real estate investors and developers are becoming increasingly interested in deals in Tampa's urban core.

"It is evident that the recent investments made by the city in cultural infrastructure such as the Riverwalk, parks, and museums, have made the city a much more desirable place to live," Mitchell wrote, "and this in turn is attracting private investments such as the redevelopment of Channelside Bay Plaza. When you see more retail development, restaurants and nightlife, you'll see demand for residential product increase, as well."