An investment firm that focuses on properties it believes are undervalued has bought a low income apartment complex in Orlando for $28.3 million and is said to be looking for more local deals.
Starwood Property Trust of Greenwich, Conn., purchased the 312-unit Wellesley from The Wilson Company, a Tampa-based builder and manager of affordable housing communities in Florida.
The purchase was made Dec. 3 by SPT Wellesley LLC, whose principal is Andrew Sossen, the chief operating officer and general counsel of Starwood Property Trust. The seller was TWC Twenty-Two LTD, whose Tampa address is that of The Wilson Co.
Wellesley sits on 25.5 acres at 8775 Wellesley Lake Dr. It is north of SR 408 and east of Good Homes Road.
Built in 2004, the apartment complex has 156 two-bedroom units, 96 three-bedrooms and 60 one-bedrooms. Rents range from $624 to $853 a month.
Starwood Property Trust is a unit of highly capitalized investment firm Starwood Capital Group. Starwood Property has people in Orlando looking at other properties, said a company representative who declined to be named. Sossen was out of the country and could not be reached. The company declined to make anyone else available.
Starwood targets markets with high barriers of entry and where little to no competitive supply exists or is under construction. The company also looks for properties that it believes are fundamentally sound but lack capital or attention.
Starwood Capital had a hand in establishing Starwood Hotels and Resorts, but has since exited that interest.
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