Meland Budwick Closes $20M Harborside Apartment Complex Deal
Mark Meland and Bryan Vega, attorneys with the law firm Meland Budwick, recently closed on the purchase of 155 out of 158 condominium hotel units at Harborside, in Tampa, Florida, on behalf of clients Eric Granowsky and Tom Delponti. This deal is noteworthy because Granowsky and Delponti are going to convert a hotel property into an apartment project. The property is located at 536 Bahia Beach Blvd., Rushkin, Fla. The deal amount is $20,251,307.
“For more than a year, we have been searching Florida for the ideal property to execute this new business thesis,” said Granowky, a principal with ESG Kullen. “Converting existing hotel into market competitive multifamily can be a very challenging exercise. The existing unit layouts, resort setting, and short commute to Tampa/St Pete really made Harborside Suites the perfect choice. We still can’t believe that we found a true resort-quality property 30 minutes south of Westshore. We are very excited to offer this incredible beach lifestyle to our residents.”
Key points related to this deal include:
The hotel condominium is part of a larger master association that Granowsky and Delponti will now go through the process of acquiring the remaining 3 units and ultimately terminating the condo regime and running the property as a multi-family rental community.
The diligence process included getting an understanding of the condo structure, terminating outdated condo association declarations, and cleaning up title.
As with other bulk condo purchases for this client, Meland and Vega also structured a turnover of the condo board at closing so their clients could gain majority control of the board.
Because the property will still be run as a hotel, they had to negotiate a unique post-closing management structure for running the hotel and ultimate transfer/turnover to a rental management structure.
The lawyers were under a tight closing timeline with no possible extensions, but worked round-the-clock with their clients, seller, lender, investors, and the title company to close on time.
