Distressed Sale Sets New Trend

(Crystal Proenza is associate editor of Real Estate Florida.)

WEST PALM BEACH, FL-In a distressed transaction that brokers say will set a trend in the Downtown area, iStar Financial Inc. has sold 141 condo units in the brand new Whitney building for less than half of the original retail price. Norway-based investment firm ABG Sundall Collier paid $24 million, or approximately $170,000 per unit, an extreme discount from what the 70 purchased units sold for–about $359,000 each, according to CB Richard Ellis, which marketed the property and brokered the deal.

New York City-based iStar Financial gained ownership of 141 units in the 210-unit building last month after Evernia Properties, an entity led by developer Enrique Dillon, gave the lender the deed in lieu of a foreclosure. “The developer was just a victim of the economy,” says Reichel Realty’s Peter Filomena, who was appointed receiver of the property. “There was a time when each unit was contracted out individually, but the developer couldn’t deliver them on a timely basis and the market turned,” he tells GlobeSt.com.