Aimco spinoff buys Harbor Group’s Pembroke Pines apartments for $223M, marking largest South Florida multifamily sale this year

Harbor Group sold the 700-unit community for nearly 41% more than it paid four years ago

Harbor Group president Richard Litton and AIR Communities CEO Terry Considine in front of the apartment complex (Harbor, AIR, City Center on 7th)
Harbor Group president Richard Litton and AIR Communities CEO Terry Considine in front of the apartment complex (Harbor, AIR, City Center on 7th)

Harbor Group International sold a 700-unit apartment complex in Pembroke Pines for nearly $223 million, marking the largest multifamily deal in South Florida this year.

Norfolk, Virginia-based Harbor Group sold City Center on 7th to Air Communities, an entity linked to the real estate investment trust Aimco, The Real Deal has learned. AIR Communities is also managing the property.

Multifamily investment sales have been on the rise in South Florida, fueled by rising demand and higher rents.

Harbor Group paid $158.5 million for the property in 2017. That means the investment firm sold it for 40.5 percent more than it paid. Harbor Group said it invested about $2.7 million in renovating and maintaining the complex, according to a press release.

The property is made up of 12 mid-rise buildings and 28 townhome buildings.

The $222.7 million sale breaks down to about $318,000 per multifamily unit. Robert Given of Cushman & Wakefield, who was involved in the previous sale of the property, represented Harbor Group. He declined to comment.

AIR Communities spun off from Aimco last year and is a separate publicly traded REIT. AIR is led by CEO Terry Considine, who founded Aimco and was its former CEO. Both companies are based in the same building in Denver and AIR Communities manages Aimco’s properties.

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Aimco declined to comment.

City Center on 7th, previously known as Montage at City Center, was built in two phases in 2014 and 2015. The community includes a clubhouse, pool, fitness center, business center, private garages, storage units, a game room and a demonstration kitchen, according to the release.

In Miami’s Edgewater neighborhood, Aimco canceled the leases of all of its tenants at the waterfront Hamilton on the Bay community, which it purchased last year for about $90 million.

Harbor Group, led by Jordan Slone, has a $13.5 billion portfolio with 4.3 million square feet of commercial properties and 48,000 apartments, according to its website.

The investment firm has been buying apartment communities across the country.

In early 2020, Harbor Group paid $1.9 billion for more than 13,000 units across the South and Southwestern U.S. That followed its $1.8 billion purchase in late 2017 of nearly 10,000 units across the East Coast and in Chicago.

In March, Harbor Group paid $81 million for the nearly 250-unit apartment complex at 300 West Palmetto Park Road in Boca Raton.