FORT MYERS, FL-Jones Lang LaSalle is testing the multifamily sales waters in one of Florida’s most battered markets. An unnamed institutional investor handed JLL the exclusive listing for Park Crest at the Lakes, a 360-unit, class A garden style apartment community in the southwestern Florida city.
JLL Managing Directors Jubeen Vaghefi, Denny St. Romain, Jeff Morris, and Vice President Steve Echelson are leading the marketing activities for the multifamily asset. JLL is betting population growth in the area, along with a strategic location and fully occupied retail, will attract investors despite Fort Myers smaller market status. The firm declined to disclose the asking price.
“Over the last few years Fort Myers has been beaten down pretty hard,” St. Romain tells GlobeSt.com. “But Ft. Myers still has fairly healthy population growth rates when you compare it to other cities in the state and in the southeast. Because it’s been beat up and because of where rent levels are today, there will probably not be any new multifamily supply added in Ft. Myers for quite a while.”
St. Romain expects non-institutional, long-term multifamily investors to take interest in Park Crest because cap rates are compressing in Florida’s primary markets, specifically South Florida, Orlando and Tampa. Private investors, he says, are beginning to turn to high quality properties in smaller secondary markets and Fort Myers fits the bill.
The multifamily vacancy rate in Ft. Myers sits at 13.1% across all asset classes, according to JLL third quarter reports. That number falls to 11.6% in the class A category. Park Crest is bucking with trend with a 99% occupancy rate.
“Park Crest is definitely one of the highest-end properties in all of Lee County,” St. Romain says. “What stands out about this property more about anything else is the market demographics.”
Within a five mile radius of the property has experienced robust population and household growth, increasing 37% and 40%, respectively, between 2000 and 2009. This growth is forecast to expand by nearly 18,000 and 9,000, respectively, through 2014. Average annual household incomes are above $72,000.
Completed in 2001, Park Crest is located 12 minutes from the barrier islands, one half mile from the Gulf Coast Medical Center, and is within five miles of 14.3 million square feet of 90%-leased big box retail. The 365,820-square-foot property features 360 apartment homes on 36 acres with a spa-quality fitness center, pool and community clubhouse.
“The biggest challenge in selling this property is making sure it gets exposed to enough groups that focus on the opportunity in Fort Myers,” St. Romain says. “Fort Myers is not a primary institutional target market. That eliminates a cast of players that typically invest in the primary markets.”
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