Record multifamily deal: Starwood buys Dadeland apartment towers

Mill Creek developed the two 25-story towers with 844 units in 2018 and 2020

Barry Sternlicht, Co-Founder, Chairman & CEO, Starwood Capital Group; The Palmer Dadeland Apartments at 8215 Southwest 72nd Avenue in Miami, FL (Starwood Capital Group, Palmer Dadeland, iStock)
Barry Sternlicht, Co-Founder, Chairman & CEO, Starwood Capital Group; The Palmer Dadeland Apartments at 8215 Southwest 72nd Avenue in Miami, FL (Starwood Capital Group, Palmer Dadeland, iStock)

Starwood Property Trust paid $371.1 million for two apartment towers near Dadeland Mall, marking the most expensive multifamily investment sale of the year in South Florida.

Starwood bought the Palmer Dadeland, at 8215 and 8217 Southwest 72nd Avenue, according to S&P Global Ratings. The two 25-story buildings have a combined 844 units.

The seller is Mill Creek Residential, according to property records.

The Starwood real estate investment trust paid nearly $440,000 per unit for property. It appears that Mill Creek sold its ownership in the property by selling the company that owns the buildings. A deed has not been recorded. The sale closed Aug. 25.

Miami Beach and Greenwich, Connecticut-based Starwood, led by chairman and CEO Barry Sternlicht, is expected to close on a nearly $260 million loan from Wells Fargo on Oct. 21, according to S&P. It is a two-year, interest-only, floating-rate commercial mortgage loan that will mature in October 2023.

Boca Raton-based Mill Creek built the first Palmer Dadeland tower in 2018 and the second tower in 2020. The units average 951 square feet, and the buildings have nearly 1,200 parking spaces. The LEED Silver-certified towers include a business center, fitness center with spin and yoga rooms, a two-story billiards lounge, game room, two rooftop decks, a pet spa and pools.

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The Starwood REIT and its affiliates own 349 apartment properties with 88,000 units. Nearly half of those units are in Florida, according to S&P.

Tower I at Palmer Dadeland saw 46.2 percent of its tenants renew in September. At the second tower, more than half of the tenants with leases that expired last month renewed for another year. Rent collections in September hovered between 98 percent and 99 percent, according to S&P.

Apartment rents and occupancies have each been on the rise in South Florida, and a number of major sales have closed this year. Prior to this sale, the largest multifamily deal this year was Cortland’s $230 million purchase of a new, seven-building apartment complex in Boca Raton in August.

Other recent deals include Dermot’s $160 million purchase of the Cordoba apartment complex near Downtown Doral, and AEW Capital Management’s acquisition of the newly built Tamiami Landings and Banyan Ridge apartment complexes for $123 million in October.

Mill Creek has been busy in South Florida. The company recently began leasing Modera Flagler Village, a 24-story, 350-unit luxury apartment tower near downtown Fort Lauderdale, according to Mill Creek’s website.