Lynd Living flips Margate apartment complex for $67M

Eight months after buying a Margate apartment complex, Lynd Living flipped the property for $66.5 million, roughly $15 million more than its previous purchase price.

Hampton Beebe, a commercial broker with Newmark who handled the listing, told The Real Deal that Atlanta-based Carroll Organization bought the 280-unit Aqua Villa at 5750 Lakeside Drive.

“It was more of an off-market deal,” Beebe said. “We had a short list [of buyers] that we went to.”

Lynd Living CEO David Lynd

In March, Lynd Living, a San Antonio, Texas-based multifamily investor, paid $50.7 million for the garden-style apartment complex previously known as The Lakes at Margate, according to records. The deal equated to $181,071 per unit. Completed in 1987, the 14-acre community has one-, two- and three-bedroom units, a clubhouse, two pools, a gym and a cyber café.

Carroll paid about $237,500 per unit for the latest deal. The firm has acquired over $7.8 billion in commercial real estate since it was founded in 2004 by CEO Patrick Carroll, according to its website.

In a statement, Lynd Living CEO David Lynd said the time was right given the hot multifamily market in South Florida, noting that rents at Aqua Villa jumped by more than 20 percent since the company bought the property in March. In addition, Lynd Living achieved its projected five-year net proceeds for investors and partners, Lynd said.

Lynd Living originally had the property under contract last year, but the company and the previous owner, Denver-based Grand Peaks, agreed to extend the closing after Lynd’s equity partner backed out. Lynd Living tapped crowd-sourced equity to help fund the purchase of Aqua Villa, according to a press release.

Lynd spent $4 million in renovations and upgrades, including the addition of chef’s kitchens to three-bedroom units, the release states.

Carroll’s acquisition is the latest in a flurry of big-ticket multifamily deals this month, as institutional investors wheel and deal for a slice of South Florida’s booming rental market. Demand is pushing rents up as much as 24 percent in parts of the tri-county region.

Schweb Partners recently paid $35.4 million for the 160-unit Oakwood Apartments in Lake Worth Beach, or $221,250 per apartment. In Pompano Beach, Ivanhoe Cambridge acquired the 225-unit Avana Bayview complex for $73.5 million, or $326,667 per unit. The deal was part of a $3.6 billion portfolio purchase from Greystar.

In Miramar, AvalonBay Communities shelled out $133 million for a 380-unit community called Ansca, or $350,000 per apartment. And in Delray Beach, TA Realty acquired the 172-unit SofA apartment complex for $82.8 million, or $481,105 a unit.

Beebe said even bigger deals are in the pipeline before the year is over. “There are some deals that will be closing in the next couple of weeks that are just astonishing,” he said.