Cervera Real Estate Ventures, led by Javier Cervera Jr., sold a 90-unit apartment complex near Miami International Airport to a firm owned by Montreal-based Trams Property Management.
Magnum Holding Company, Trams’ U.S. subsidiary, paid about $20 million for Mia Airport Villas at 4325 to 4335 Northwest South Tamiami Canal Drive, according to a press release. The deal breaks down to roughly $224,000 per rental unit.
With the acquisition of Mia Airport Villas, Magnum now owns more than 1,000 apartments in Florida. Trams, Magnum’s parent company, is led by the Pomerantz family.
Joel Rodriguez with Global investments and Felipe Echarte with Marcus and Millichap brokered the transaction, the release states. Jon Kotler with Keller Williams represented the buyer.
Cervera sold the two-building community for $7 million above its purchase price three years ago. In 2020, Cervera bought the Mia Airport Villas, which was completed in 1972, records show.
During its ownership, Cervera repositioned and stabilized Mia Airport Villas. When his firm bought the property, the apartment complex was “undervalued,” Cervera Jr. said in a statement.
The owner prior to Cervera operated Mia Airport Villas as short-term rentals. Cervera converted the property to traditional apartments. The firm spent $550,000 making repairs and renovating Mia Airport Villas, a company spokesperson said. In 2020, the complex’s was 80 percent occupied. At the time of the most recent sale, the property was 98 percent occupied, During that three year span, the average asking rent jumped from $1,387 to $1,560 a month.
Mia Airport Villas offers a mix of one- and two-bedroom apartments ranging from 680 square feet to 780 square feet, according to Apartments.com.
The sale of Mia Airport Villas is in line with Cervera’s shift from multifamily properties to retail centers. The firm plans to reinvest the gains from the deal, and is currently on the hunt for retail properties in Miami-Dade County, the release states.
Last year, Cervera sold three apartment buildings in North Miami for a combined $10 million. Around the same time, Cervera paid $25 million for Tropical Park Plaza, a strip mall in the unincorporated Miami-Dade neighborhood of Westchester.
Founded in 1981, Magnum has a small portfolio of apartment complexes and hotels across Florida according to the firm’s website. Last year, Magnum acquired Pierre on The Bay, a 70-unit apartment building, and an adjacent vacant lot in Miami Beach’s Normandy Isle neighborhood for $15 million.