Lloyd Jones drops $92M for Little Havana apartments

Premium Development completed 194-unit First Apartments last year, now 97% occupied

Lloyd Jones Chairman and CEO Christopher Finlay and First Apartments at 701 Southwest First Street in Little Havana (Lloyd Jones, Premium Development)
Lloyd Jones Chairman and CEO Christopher Finlay and First Apartments at 701 Southwest First Street in Little Havana (Lloyd Jones, Premium Development)

Lloyd Jones expanded its South Florida multifamily portfolio with a $92 million acquisition in Miami’s Little Havana.

Miami-based Premium Development sold First Apartments, a 194-unit building at 701 Southwest First Street, to Lloyd Jones, a multifamily and senior living-focused real estate firm also based in Miami, according to a press release.

Still Hunter and Kaya Suarez with Walker & Dunlop brokered the deal, representing the seller and the buyer. First Apartments hit the market in February, and Lloyd Jones paid the listing price, a Walker & Dunlop spokesperson said. The deal breaks down to $474,226 per apartment.

Premium Development, the U.S. subsidiary of Austria-based developer Premium Group, bought the 1.4-acre site for $3.3 million in 2017, and the 13-story building was completed last year, records show. First Apartments reached 90 percent occupancy in January and is currently at 97 percent occupancy, the Walker & Dunlop spokesperson said.

The property is a mix of one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom units with monthly rents ranging from $2,333 to $5,125, according to an offering. First Apartments also has a ground-floor commercial space.

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Premium Development is not done building new apartments in Little Havana. In May of last year, the firm paid Presidente Supermarkets $15 million for an adjacent 2.3-acre property. Premium plans to break ground in 2023 on a 400-unit multifamily building with ground-floor retail.

Lloyd Jones, led by Chairman and CEO Christopher Finlay, has developed, owned, and managed about $1.2 billion in multifamily real estate since 1990, according to the firm’s website. In 2019, Lloyd Jones paid $55.6 million for Ventura Point, a 206-unit apartment complex in Pembroke Pines.

Amid a hot South Florida multifamily market, investors are eyeing Little Havana properties that offer renters more affordable rates than buildings in neighboring Brickell and downtown Miami. Last month, a trio of apartment buildings in Little Havana traded for a combined $29 million.

In April, Oakland Park-based Rental Asset Management paid $30.1 million for First & Sixth, a 100-unit apartment building in Little Havana