An affiliate of TH Real Estate paid $66.5 million on Friday for the 300-unit Lofts at SoDo apartments in south downtown Orlando, marking its second local multifamily purchase this month.
Located at 100 W. Grant St., the five-story mid-rise apartment building was built in 2008-09 by Wood Partners and sold in December 2013 to an affiliate of Mesirow Financial Real Estate Value Fund for $50.85 million.
The 22-acre SoDo mixed-use complex includes retailers like Super Target, TJ Maxx, Jason’s Deli, 24 Hour Fitness and Flippers Pizza. Its approximate 370,000 square feet of retail space and 75,000 square feet of office was not included in this recent sale.
ZRS was brought on this week to serve as new property manager, replacing RAM Partners. The property is currently 94 percent leased, on-site staff said Wednesday.
“Lofts at SoDo is positioned within Orlando’s super-regional employment downtown hub with close proximity to world-class cultural and recreational venues,” said Carlos Burneo, director at TH Real Estate and lead for multifamily in Florida. “With Orlando’s continuous employment and population growth, this acquisition provided an opportunity for TH Real Estate to expand our Cities of Tomorrow multifamily investment strategy.”
JLL‘s multifamily team of Jubeen F. Vaghefi, Denny St. Romain and Matt Wilcox marketed the property for the seller.
TH Real Estate is an investment affiliate of Nuveen, itself the investment management arm of TIAA. The company was created in 2014 when TIAA (then TIAA-CREF, the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association) and Henderson Global Investors formed a joint venture between their real estate operations.
The company manages about $10 billion in multifamily housing assets globally, focusing on rental housing investments in demand-driven markets. Last October, it announced it had closed a seventh multifamily housing club fund that would allow it to target approximately $400 million in value-add apartments in the U.S.
TH Real Estate is building up its Florida asset portfolio after opening a Miami office in January 2017. It bought a 336-unit former Bainbridge property in Casselberry in early May, and a student apartments complex near UCF last September.
Metro Orlando was the top choice for increased apartment investment spending during the near term as of late 2017, according to National Apartment Association-RealPage Market Momentum survey results from November.
The market’s job and population growth are among the nation’s strongest. Since 2010 Orlando has absorbed apartments at a pace of about 5,000 units annually, with long-term indicators of a 10,000- to 12,000-unit absorption potential per year.
Orlando’s apartment occupancy topped 96 percent in late 2017, above the national average, and its occupancy level was more than 200 basis points above the local long-term average, a measure dating back to the early 1990s, per RealPage.
TH Real Estate’s buyer LLC for Lofts at SoDo sourced a $33.1 million mortgage from the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association, which took over a loan balance from the seller and their lender, Allianz Life Insurance Company.
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