Exclusive: Downtown Tampa apartment tower sells for $136 million
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Nov 17, 2021

An apartment tower in downtown Tampa’s Channel district has sold for the second-highest price per unit ever paid for a market-rate multifamily property in the Tampa Bay region.

Channel Club, the 22-story tower at Meridian Avenue and East Twiggs Street anchored by Publix Super Markets Inc., has sold for $136 million, Frank Carriera, CBRE Inc. executive vice president, told the Tampa Bay Business Journal.

The buyer is Arlington, Virginia-based Snell Properties. The Publix store was not part of the transaction; the Lakeland-based grocer has owned its real estate at that location since 2018.

“It’s a fantastic time to invest in Tampa. We have been impressed by Tampa’s economic strength, quality of life and burgeoning downtown as we continue to expand in the Southeast," Peter Colarulli, vice president of Snell Properties, said in a statement.

Carriera and Mike Regan, CBRE executive vice president, represented the seller, a partnership of Atlanta-based ECI Group and Tampa’s Mercury Advisors.

Snell Properties secured long-term debt for the acquisition, Carriera said. Records for the transaction have not yet been filed in Hillsborough County.

The sales price breaks down to $419,753 per apartment; it is the third Tampa Bay multifamily property ever to sell for more than $400,000 per apartment. 500 Harbour Island holds the record for the highest price per apartment at more than $440,000 per unit. Anchor Riverwalk, which sold for $398,477 per apartment in August, briefly held second place. St. Petersburg’s Icon Central, which has since been renamed Camden Central, sold for more than $406,000 per apartment just weeks after Anchor Riverwalk traded.

The record prices are driven by a population boom that has sent rents across the Tampa Bay region skyrocketing. The prices signal confidence in the Tampa Bay luxury rental market; the investors behind those deals are betting that the region’s population growth and rising rents are sustainable for the long term.

When the tower went on the market in mid-July, Carriera was optimistic about the sale. But Channel Club outperformed even his expectations. There were more than 25 offers on the property; a semifinal round of four bidders was between two institutional groups and two private groups. The two private groups — including Snell Properties — were the final bidders, and Snell Properties ultimately won out.

“What exceeded my expectations was how aggressive some of the groups were ready to be,” Carriera said. “It just speaks to the market we’re in right now. Private groups can move very quickly and are able to get more aggressive on pricing terms.”