Trending
Benchmark drops $17M for historic Palm Beach apartment building
New York-based multifamily investor paid $740K per unit
UPDATED, May 18, 3:05 p.m.: A New York-based multifamily real estate investment firm bought a historic apartment building in Palm Beach for $17 million.
An affiliate of Benchmark Real Estate Group, led by principals Aaron Feldman and Jordan Vogel, acquired the 23-unit property at 184 Sunset Avenue, according to records. The buyer obtained an $8 million loan from Valley National Bank.
The deal works out to $740,000 per apartment. The seller, an affiliate of Chicago-based commercial real estate firm Conlon & Co., paid $2.9 million for the property in 2010, records show.
Zachary Baraf, principal of the Stanwich Group, acted as the sole adviser in the deal.
Completed in 1926, the Mediterranean-style building features one-bedroom apartments averaging 600 square feet and 1,951 square feet of ground-floor retail, according to an online listing. Rents start at about $1,850 a month, the listing states.
Established in 2009, Benchmark primarily focuses on New York, acquiring more than 1,000 apartments with a cumulative market value of more than $1 billion, according to its website. Benchmark was primarily active in the 2010s when the firm acquired several multifamily buildings that it sold at a profit of over $400 million between 2015 and 2017.
In 2020, an affiliate of Benchmark raised $200 million by selling shares of a shell corporation to private and public investors through a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. It’s a vehicle real estate companies use to raise funds from investors without having to go public.
Palm Beach County is one of the hottest multifamily markets for institutional investors. This month, Pantzer Properties paid $78 million for The District Flats, a 178-unit apartment complex in West Palm Beach. Last month, the New York-based firm also bought the 136-unit Solera at City Centre Apartments in Palm Beach Gardens for $66.5 million.
Also in April, Boston-based Berkshire Residential Investments closed a behemoth deal for The Sophia at Abacoa apartment complex in Jupiter. Berkshire paid $202.5 million for the 390-unit garden-style community.