An investment group led by Thomas Neary paid $7.56 million for an apartment complex in a Brownsville Opportunity Zone.
The group paid about $90,000 per unit for the 84-unit St. George Apartments at 5200 Northwest 26th Avenue, according to broker Jacob Serure. Serure’s SRE Commercial Group at Investment Brokers Realty brokered the deal.
Property records show the seller is J.A.G Fourth Avenue LLC and St. George Apartments LLC, led by George Maniatopoulos. The 1.6-acre property is a block away from the Brownsville Metrorail station. Brownsville is north of Allapattah and west of Little Haiti.
The building sits in an Opportunity Zone, which means the new owners can qualify for significant tax benefits if they substantially redevelop the property. The federal program allows investors and developers the ability to defer or potentially forgo paying capital gains taxes if they invest in a distressed area throughout the country for at least five years.
There are more than 8,700 designated zones throughout the U.S.
Serure said Neary and his partners have already started to renovate the building, which was built in 1958. Current rents for two-bedroom units average about $1,000 a month and a one-bedroom rents for about $800 a month.
Five buyers made offers on the property, which has 60 two-bedroom units, Serure said. It last sold in 2012 for about $2.9 million.
Neary also owns real estate in the Miami Design District and in Overtown, records show. In April, a company tied to Neary and Arthur Bartholomew of Fort Lauderdale-based Walnut Street Capital paid $14 million for six properties in Miami’s Overtown neighborhood.
“He’s active in up-and-coming neighborhoods,” Serure said.