Large apartment property in St. Petersburg sells for $114 million
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Nov 11, 2020

A massive apartment complex in St. Petersburg has sold for $114 million.

Stoneweg US, an investment firm in St. Petersburg, acquired Trellis at the Lakes, located in the Gandy area, on Nov. 5. Berkadia said Tuesday that its Joint Venture Equity and Structured Capital Group, led by Chinmay Bhatt, Noam Franklin and Cody Kirkpatrick, secured a life insurance company as the joint venture equity partner, which brought $36 million to the deal.

The sales price breaks down to $165,700 per unit. That's not a notable sales price per unit in the Tampa Bay region, where top-tier properties have begun to regularly top $300,000 per apartment, but there are few aggregate sales prices of $100 million or more.

Even as the novel coronavirus pandemic has brought a rise in unemployment and a national moratorium on evictions, investors and developers are still bullish on Tampa Bay's apartment market.

“Working alongside a high-caliber client like Stoneweg US on an off-market acquisition in their backyard with a clear value-add story made it a straightforward underwrite for capital,” Berkadia's Kirkpatrick said in a statement. “We were able to bring multiple joint venture term sheets to the client and ultimately found a LifeCo partner for a great execution.”

Mark Meland and Bryan Vega with Meland Budwick represented the seller of the property, an entity affiliated with ESG Kullen. The seller paid $80.85 million for the property in September 2016, according to Pinellas County property records.

Some renovations were completed between 2016 and 2018, Stoneweg said, and it plans to complete them. Renovations will include adding black or stainless steel appliances, granite countertops, cabinets and wood flooring. Washer and dryer appliances will be added to the remaining 25 percent of the units that do not currently contain them.

Built in 1982, Trellis at the Lakes includes 384 one-bedroom and 304 two-bedroom units with an overall average unit size of 732 square feet.