NAPLES, FL-Within 16 days, in eight separate transactions, nine multifamily properties aggregating 2,326 units along South Florida's west coast have sold for a total of just over $326.5 million. Among them is Malibu Lakes, a 356-unit property here, which traded for $83 million, or $233,146 a unit.

The Malibu Lakes sale, "represents the highest to-date price-per-unit ever paid on the southwest coast of Florida," Jamie May, chairman and CEO of JBM Realty Advisors, tells GlobeSt.com. "The next closest was a complex in Tampa, which sold earlier this year for $185,000 a unit," he says. "If there were a quadruple-A class, this would be it," May adds. The property was completed in 2003 and is 100% occupied. The seller was Merrillville, IN-based Whiteco Residential, and the buyer was Miami-based BF Group, which is converting it to condominiums.

May, working from the JBM office here, represented the seller in this transaction and in the additional eight multifamily property sales. JBM also has offices in Miami and Tampa. These sales signify expansion of the current condo-conversion trend to Florida's southwest coast, he says, adding, "more sales here are in the pipeline."

BF Group also acquired Summer Wind, a 368-unit complex, which May describes as a class BB, for $46 million, or $125,000 a unit. It was built in 1986 and is located on a 14.7-acre site here. The seller was Pittsburgh-based First Capital Corp.

Harvest Equities, which is based in Philadelphia and is affiliated with RAIT Investment Trust, sold Antigua Bay and Montego Bay in Fort Myers for $54 million to ACGG Inc., a condo converter based in Coral Gables. Antigua Bay contains 240 units and was built in 1985, while Montego Bay, located one mile away, has 288 units and was completed in 1986. The selling price for both represents $102,273 a unit. Both are class B, garden-style communities, according to May.

Three of the properties are in Sarasota, and a fourth is in Tampa. Farmington Hills, MI-based Betzak Properties sold the 320-unit Citation Club, a class B property in "a class A location of Sarasota," May says, for just over $44.3 million, or $138,475 a unit. TA Associates Realty sold Summer Cove, a 224-unit, class A, garden-style complex, also in Sarasota, for just over $37.7 million, or $155,000 a unit. And Philadelphia-based PRG Real Estate Management old Gateway Lakes, a 358-unit, class A facility in Sarasota for $55.5 million, or $155,028 a unit. Jupiter-based Landmark Residential sold the Andover Club, a 172-unit, class C facility that is attached to the 29,029-sf Ambassador Square retail center in Tampa for $9 million, or $52.326 a unit.