South St. Petersburg apartments sell in $16.8 million bundle deal
By Breanne Williams
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Dec 23, 2021

The Sabal Palm Portfolio in St. Petersburg, which contains seven properties and a total of 127 multifamily units, has been sold to a New York-based buyer for a combined total of $16.8 million.

The seven properties sold were:

1.The Atlas, a 32-unit property at 2800 Fourth St. S

2.The Astoria, a 23-unit property at 2026 Fourth St. S

3.The Avalon, a 20-unit property at 2729 Fourth St. S

4.Park View, a 20-unit property at 674 22nd Ave. S

5.St. Pete Gardens, a 14-unit property at 2410 Fourth St. S

6.The Ruby, a 12-unit property at 1101 16th St. S

7.The Rose, a 6-unit property at 2624 Fourth St. S

Joseph Thavis, Cameron Barbas, Francesco Carriera and Michael Regan with CBRE Capital Markets in Tampa represented both the buyer, a private investor out of New York, and sellers, a partnership between The Otto Investment Group, HUMI Holdings and Jakob Maehren.

Documents from Pinellas County show Sabal Palms Owners LLC purchased the sites through four different transactions on Dec. 15, which totaled $16.825 million.

“When we sold this portfolio to the Otto Investment Group last year, we saw an opportunity to help our client execute a business plan to take advantage of the extraordinary growth within downtown St. Petersburg, while catering to both market-rate and affordable tenants,” Barbas with CBRE said in a news release. “It’s exciting to see this vision come full circle in this sale."

The sellers renovated the sites and added upgrades like new roofs, irrigation systems, landscaping, painted six of the seven properties and added pedestrian gates. Also, 78 of the 127 units have new flooring and appliances as well as kitchen and bathroom upgrades.

“The sale of our St. Petersburg portfolio exceeded our expectations and demonstrated strong demand for stabilized properties,” Konstantin Sidorov, CEO of Maehren Investment Corp., said in a news release. “We truly believe in the Tampa Bay market and plan to expand our investment footprint here in 2022.”

The new owner took out a mortgage through The Bancorp Bank for $13.875 million for all the properties listed in the portfolio.

“The sale of the Sabal Palms Portfolio speaks to the evolution of the St. Petersburg market as 2020 Old Northeast values move to the south side,” Thavis with CBRE said in a statement. “With progress underway on the Tropicana site and large-scale projects like Residences at 400 Central and Orange Station at the Edge coming out of the ground, there’s no end in sight to the robust growth in St. Petersburg.”

At the time of closing the portfolio was 97% occupied.