FT. LAUDERDALE, FL- Boston-based TA Associates purchased San Merano at Mirasol, a 476-unit multi-family complex in Palm Beach Gardens from the Kolter Property Co. of West Palm Beach for $69.6 million or $145,089 per unit. “We think that is the highest price per unit paid for a non-fractured apartment complex since June 2008,” says Robert Given, executive vice president at CB Richard Ellis in Miami who was one of the brokers for the seller, the other being Zack Sackley, director of operations at CB Richard Ellis in Miami.

“The last project which closed at this high a price per unit was the 464-unit Winston complex in Pembroke Pines, west of Hollywood,” says Givens. “We sold that property to Equity Residential,” he says.

“We were preparing to go to market with San Merano at Mirasol when we received unsolicited offers, so we accepted one,” says Given. “Four or five groups attempted to bid on the project,” he says. San Merano at Mirasol, a class A product, was completed in two stages in 2002 and 2004, according to Given.

“TA bought Merano at Mirasol for cash and closed on the property in less than 30 days, so if we had gone to market and fully marketed the asset, we probably would have gotten a higher price,” says Given. The cap rate on the property is 5.6% using current numbers, rather than projections, he says. 

“Most cap rates for the last three years have  been north of 6%, so this cap rate is a signal that cap rates are compressing and that quality assets will be priced higher,” than in the past couple of years, says Given. 

According to a June 24, 2010 article in National Real Estate Investor magazine, “Some 20,000 apartments were absorbed in the first quarter of 2010 which is the strongest first quarter showing in the past  ten years,”according to Victor Calanog, director of research at Reis. “The multi-family market appears to be on the cusp of recovery. If so, pricing and transaction activity will rise and the window of opportunity for landing good deals may soon close,” says Calanog.

Calanog says that he was surprised to see the apartment market bottom out as quickly as it has, but that as long as there is a shadow market of empty condominiums and single family homes in places like South Florida and Phoenix, “it’s going to be interesting to see if the apartment market can recover independent of that (impediment).”

But Given’s optimism about the South Florida apartment market does not seem to be tinged by doubt. “Most major research groups (he didn’t mention which ones) are predicting that rental rates in South Florida, especially in Palm Beach and Broward Counties, have bottomed out,” he says, adding that he expects to see three to five years of rent growth. Miami-Dade didn’t have as much of a dip in rental rates as did Broward and Palm Beach Counties, because there was not as much of a drop in demand as in those other counties, says Given.

According to CB Richard Ellis Research, in the second quarter of 2010, the apartment vacancy rates for the three main South Florida counties were: 5.9% in Miami Dade; 4.8% in Broward and in Palm Beach there was a 5.6% vacancy rate. 

Apartment property owners will have more reason to put more properties up for sale, now that prices are up, says Given. “Core buyers are moving back into the market and pricing is correcting itself,” he says.