Built to rent community to break ground in Tampa Palms
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Aug 12, 2022

A Birmingham, Alabama developer is moving forward with plans for a built-to-rent cottage and townhouse community in Tampa Palms.

Capstone Communities paid $3.96 million for a site at 15081 Cypress Cay Blvd. in July, according to Hillsborough County property records. There, the developer plans to build a 198-unit “low density” community consisting of lofts, one- and two-story cottages as well as two-story townhouses. It will break ground this month, Capstone said in a news release.

Capstone, traditionally a student housing developer, expanded into built-to-rent properties in 2018.

“With Tampa Bay’s continual top 10 national metro ranking for population and migration growth and Tampa Palms’ high concentration of employees, this is the perfect location to introduce our cottage-style community,” Amanda Wallis, executive vice president of development for Capstone Communities, said in a statement. “The Cottages will give residents a sense of community unlike the traditional apartment setting and provide easy access to work, shopping, restaurants and entertainment.”

CBI Construction Services is the project’s general contractor. Birmingham-based Nequette Architecture & Design is the architect. The first residents will move in in fall 2023, and the project will be complete in spring 2024. The community will feature a New Urbanism-style design, with green spaces and pocket parks throughout.

The developer secured a $42.1 million construction loan from BMO Harris Bank on July 19, according to Hillsborough County property records. Cody Kirkpatrick, Noam Franklin and Chinmay Bhatt of Berkadia JV Equity & Structured Capital sourced the project’s equity partner, a fund manager based in Texas.

“These newest communities are evidence of the value of long-term programmatic partnerships between experienced developers and an institutional equity partner,” Kirkpatrick said in a statement. “Among a variety of capital providers, we were able to identify an equity partner whose values and goals aligned with Capstone’s, allowing them to execute on these transactions with speed and confidence in an otherwise volatile market.”