Apartment Complex Sale Tops $90,000 Per Unit

FORT MYERS, FL-The Benchmark Group of Amherst, NY purchased Monterrey, a 408-unit, class A+ apartment complex here, from American Properties of New Jersey for nearly $36.9 million.The garden-style apartment complex, located on 39.8 acres in southwest Florida, sold for approximately $90,319 per unit. The property probably would have gone for $40 million–or $98,000 per unit–rather than nearly $37 million, according to Jamie May, chairman and CEO of Naples-based JBM Realty Advisors, which represented both parties in the transaction. May and company senior directors Eric Ammon and Carlos Berner were the exclusive investment advisers/brokers in the deal.”Unfortunately, since the partnership had broken up, they were willing to sell the property at a discount,” May says. American Properties owns one other property, in San Diego, which is expected to go on the market later this year, he says.Completed in 2001, Monterrey is 94%. American Properties, which typically built properties for the purpose of selling them, was its developer.The property was well received in the market, according to May, and had more than 35 offers in less than 30 days. The Benchmark Group assumed a $30.6 million existing first mortgage at 6.85% until February 2010. Monterrey is located next to a large medical facility, off Summerlin Road, which leads to tourist hot spots Sannibel and Captiva. “The location is unreal; it could never be duplicated,” May says.The property has 17 three-story, concrete block buildings and a clubhouse/leasing building. The residential buildings have 518,304 net rentable sf, with an average unit size of 1,270 sf. It has 639 surface parking spaces, 78 garage spaces and 60 carport spaces and a parking ratio of 1.9 spaces per unit. Amenities include two resort-style pools, a heated Jacuzzi, a fitness center, an indoor racquetball court, a lighted tennis court, a playground and a putting green.