Nuveen pays $98M for Blue Lagoon apartment complex in Miami

Deal equates to $360K per unit

Nuveen Real Estate CEO Mike Sales and LaVida apartments (Eileen Escarda)
Nuveen Real Estate CEO Mike Sales and LaVida apartments (Eileen Escarda)

Nuveen Real Estate bought an apartment complex at Blue Lagoon near Miami International Airport for $98 million.

Pinnacle and Ascend Properties sold the LaVida Apartments, a pair of eight-story buildings at 6600 Northwest Seventh Street, near the Waterford Business District.

The two firms developed the 272-unit, lakefront project in 2019 across 7.4 acres. Ascend, through an affiliate, bought the land for $7.6 million in 2015.

Robert Given and Troy Ballard were part of a Cushman & Wakefield team that led marketing and brokered the deal. The sale for the fully leased community closed for $360,294 per unit.

LaVida, which overlooks a lake to its south, includes one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments ranging from 728 to 1,295 square feet, according to a release. Rental listing website Apartments.com shows the monthly asking rent for a one-bedroom ranges from $1,810 to $2,085.

Units include a terrace, porcelain floors, quartz countertops and full-size, stackable washer and dryer, according to the release.

LaVida apartments (Eileen Escarda)

LaVida apartments (Eileen Escarda)

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

Designed by Behar Font & Partners, LaVida also has an hourglass-shaped pool, Jacuzzi, two garages, clubhouse, grilling amenities, gym with a yoga studio, gourmet coffee bar and Wi-Fi throughout common areas.

Miami-Dade County-based Pinnacle has developed close to 10,000 units, both luxury like LaVida as well as affordable and workforce housing, across Florida, Texas and Mississippi, according to its website. Louis Wolfson III, Michael Wohl and David Deutch founded Pinnacle in 1997, with Wolfson and Deutch remaining as current partners along with Mitchell Freidman.

Multifamily developer Ascend is based in Boca Raton and led by Wohl, Richard Finkelstein and Dean Borg.

Pinnacle and Ascend obtained a $46.4 million construction loan in 2017 for LaVida, which they had initially named Oasis at Blue Lagoon.

Chicago-based Nuveen Real Estate, a global real estate investment arm of TIAA, also co-owns the nearby Waterford Business District, one of the county’s biggest office parks with prominent tenants such as FedEx and Nicklaus Children’s Hospital. Subway leased space there in March for its marketing and culinary staff members as well as its Latin American regional office.

The top-dollar LaVida sale comes amid a slew of multifamily deals across South Florida, in light of unprecedented rental rate increases fueled by demand from newcomers and locals.