High-rise apartment in downtown Orlando sells for $155 million, breaking 2022 record

A new high-rise luxury apartment community that opened in downtown Orlando in 2021 sold this week in the largest multifamily deal recorded in the market this year.

The 389-unit Radius, located just north of Lake Eola, was acquired Thursday by California-based G.W. Williams Co. International Real Estate Investments with a closing price of $155 million, according to Orange County deed records.

The asset’s original developer, Banner Real Estate Group, was the seller. Newmark’s Executive Managing Director Scott Ramey led the team that brokered the sale.

The buyer nor the seller could immediately be reached for comment.

“A sale of this magnitude continues to show the market believes in the long-term value of Central Florida for renters and general real estate investment,” said Austin McWilliams, a commercial real estate broker with First Capital Property Group who specializes in multifamily and mixed-use development in Orlando but wasn’t involved in this sale.

“As interest rates continue to climb within the housing market, rental communities become the most popular - and sometimes only - option for residents,” McWilliams added. “With Central Florida’s continued current and projected growth, rental community investment will continue to be an attractive investment vehicle for years to come.”

This ranks as the most expensive single-property apartment asset sale in 2022 across the Greater Orlando area, according to Co-Star.

The previous top seller belonged to the 384-unit Jefferson Lake Howell in Casselberry, which sold in March for $154.1 million to Jones Lang LaSalle Income Property Trust, according to CoStar data. That sale was also brokered by Newmark.

The Radius deal ranks among the highest over the past 12 months. The 663-unit Anchors at Maitland Summit sold last October for $177 million, CoStar reports.

Unlike these other assets though, the 13-story Radius Apartments, at the intersection of Rosalind Avenue and E. Livingston Street, also includes retail space on the ground floor — 14,000 square feet worth.

“There are an increasing number of multifamily properties incorporating a retail component,” said Lisa McNatt CoStar’s director of Market Analytics, “but it’s still a single-property sale.”

The retail component could have impacted the cost, but Chip Wooten, a multifamily broker with CBRE who also wasn’t involved in the deal, said he wouldn’t be surprised if the price was driven solely by the multifamily units.

Earlier this month, Wooten brokered a deal for the 300-unit Helix at Lake Mary, a garden-style apartment community that opened in 2021. That sold for $125.1 million.

“Helix was a new record for garden-style apartments on a price-per-unit basis in Central Florida,” Wooten said. “Orlando is certainly considered a top-tier market when it comes to multifamily.”

The Radius was designed by architecture firm Baker Barrios. It features two roof decks, including one of the market’s largest pool decks on the seventh floor over a parking garage.

The parking garage on the property’s east side features a brick facade, as do the first five stories of residential units, taking a design cue from the Trinity Lutheran Church directly across E. Livingston Street.

The buyer, G.W. Williams, operates in eight regions across the U.S. where it owns multifamily, light industrial, commercial, and office properties with a market value in excess of one billion.

The company first entered the Orlando market earlier this year when it acquired another downtown asset. In April, the company paid $90 million for the 246-unit NORA apartment community on the corner of North Orange Avenue and Marks Street.

That deal amounted to 365,850 per unit while the Radius deal breaks down to $398,457 per unit.

For the Radius acquisition, G.W. Williams took out a $67 million loan from the Forethought Life Insurance Co., according to county records.

CoStar stated in a multifamily report published on Oct. 4 that 140 apartment properties had traded hands in this market over the past 12 months for a total of $8.9 billion.

During this timeframe, the average price per unit has also grown by over 20% to a current rate of $270,000 per unit.

That underscores how feverish multifamily investment activity is in Orlando, the report says.

“To say that investors are bullish on Central Florida’s multifamily sector would be an understatement,” that report reads. “Competition for multifamily assets has been fierce and has been driving pricing up.”

Other recent housing deals include the Oct. 24 sale of Hyde Park, a 55-and-over community located at 14253 W Colonial Drive.

Cove Communities, a Phoenix-based owner and manager of 16 senior-living communities across Florida, acquired the 396-unit Hyde Park for $45.7 million. This is the company’s first age-restricted asset in the Orlando market.

Have a tip about Central Florida development? Contact me at (407)-800-1161 or dwyatt@GrowthSpotter.com, or tweet me at @DustinWyattGS. Follow GrowthSpotter on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.