Luxury Clearwater apartments sell for $93 million

The Connor Group, a Dayton, Ohio-based real estate investment firm, has made its second deal in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area.

The company bought Bayside Arbors, a 436-unit luxury apartment complex in Clearwater, for $93.25 million in a deal that closed Tuesday.

It was one of three eight-figure multifamily transactions in Pinellas County this week, as the apartment sector remains strong locally. The Tampa-St. Petersburg multifamily market is considered No. 4 in the nation for apartment building investments, according to multifamilyfirm.com

The website said employment growth, rent growth, vacancy rates and construction of new units made Tampa-St. Pete a desirable market.

Bayside Arbors, at 2729 Seville Blvd., previously was owned by Gateway Lockwood Inc., a Pasadena, California-based title holding company for pensions. The property has four four-story buildings and three clubhouses, according to Pinellas property records.

“We purchased Bayside Arbors for a multitude of reasons,” Larry Connor, managing partner and founder, said in a statement sent to St. Pete Catalyst. “The property is in a Class A location, directly on the water, which is extremely rare for an apartment community. It’s also the first time this property has been on the market in 25 years. When we saw this unique opportunity, we followed our proven systems and ultimately decided Bayside Arbors was a perfect fit for our portfolio.”

Connor Groupbought Anchor Riverwalk in Tampa in September 2019, and more deals may be coming, Connor suggested.

“We are absolutely looking for the right opportunities to buy in the Tampa-St. Pete area. Bayside Arbors is our second acquisition in the market, and we are actively searching for other properties that fit our long-term business model,” Connor said.

Bayside Arbors was one of three properties the Connor Group acquired in just eight days, with other deals in Indianapolis and Raleigh-Durham. The firm is on pace to top $1.3 billion in transactions in 12 months, a news release said.

Bayside Arbors sold for $213,876 a unit. It’s one of the pricier deals recently. In comparison, Cortland, an Atlanta-based multifamily real estate firm, paid $289,444 per unit when it bought Cortland Bayside (formerly Bainbridge Bayside), a 360-unit apartment complex in Clearwater, for $104.2 million in November. 

In a second deal on Tuesday, Madison Place, a 456-unit apartment complex at 2690 Drew St. in Clearwater, sold for $57.58 million, according to Pinellas County property records.

The seller was BH Management in Des Moines, Iowa and the buyer was Infinity the Standard, an entity associated with Infinity Acquisitions and Infinity BH Real Estate Investments in Surfside, Florida.

Madison Place has 13 buildings mostly constructed in 1975 and 1976, and totals 442,000 square feet.

A smaller transaction involved Waterside Village, a 102-unit property at 3600 49th Ave. N. in unincorporated Pinellas County. Waterside Village Apartments LLC, an entity associated with The Drake Companies in Largo, sold the 65,000-square-foot property for $12 million on Wednesday to Pueblo Village Apartments, based in Rancho Santa Fe, California.

Waterside Village includes a four-story building with 54 units built in 1976 and several duplexes built in the 1970s and 1980s, according to Pinellas property records.