Tampa Bay's apartment market is even hotter than you thought
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Dec 3, 2021

A flurry of deals in recent weeks shows that multifamily investors are as bullish as ever on Tampa Bay’s economy — and one previous deal was even hotter than first reported.

When Miami-based Related Group sold Icon Central to Camden Property Trust in August, the sale was recorded in Pinellas County property records as $149 million or $406,666 per apartment. That was high enough to make it the second-highest price ever paid for a market-rate multifamily property in the Tampa Bay market — but recent regulatory filings show that the full price was even higher.

Camden, which has a large portfolio in the Tampa Bay region, disclosed in a quarterly report with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that the full purchase price of Icon Central — which it has since renamed Camden Central — was $176.3 million or $479,076 per apartment. SEC and record property prices can vary for a number of reasons.

A per-apartment price of $479,076 crushes Tampa Bay’s previous record, the $440,212 per-door sale of 500 Harbour Island in 2019. It moves the Tampa Bay market much closer to the half-million-dollar per unit threshold.

Here’s a look at several other big sales that have unfolded in recent weeks:

Channel Club, downtown Tampa

Channel Club, anchored by Publix Super Markets Inc., sold for $136 million or $419,753 per apartment in mid-November. It is now the third-highest price ever paid for a market-rate apartment complex in Tampa Bay.

Avana Westchase

The 400-unit Avana Westchase, where half of the units are townhouses and half are traditional apartments, sold in mid-November for $108.8 million or $272,137 per unit to Canadian investment firm Ivanhoé Cambridge Inc., according to Hillsborough County property records.

The seller, South Carolina-based Greystar, paid $82 million or $205,000 per apartment in 2018. Greystar bought the complex from Pollack Shores Real Estate Group, which paid $64.5 million in 2014 and renovated both the individual units and common areas.

Nexus Brandon

A newly built apartment complex in Brandon sold in early November for more than $300,000 per unit to a partnership of Tampa-based TLR Group and Canadian investment firm Sarees Investments.

The 287-unit Tapestry Town Center, which wrapped up construction in 2020, sold for $88 million, TLR Group said. The seller was the original developer, Birmingham-based Arlington Properties.