Vantage Capital pays $21M for 108-unit Hialeah rental complex amid investment sales slowdown

Vantage Capital Partners scooped up a 108-unit apartment complex in Hialeah for $20.6 million, marking one of the few multifamily investment sales this year. 

Coconut Grove-based Vantage bought the San Sherri Apartments at 1310-1345 West 29th Street from a pair of affiliates tied to Brooklyn-based Freshwater Group, according to records and real estate database Vizzda. The buyer borrowed $13.1 million from Grove Bank & Trust. 

Jacob Serure of SRE Commercial Group represented the buyer and seller. 

The complex consists of three two-story buildings completed in 1967 and 1968 on a 2.2-acre site, records show. Freshwater, led by Alfred Sayegh, had paid $16.1 million for San Sherri in 2017. 

The recent sale breaks down to $190,800 per unit. 

San Sherri is fully leased, Serure said. 

Vantage, a development and value-add multifamily investment firm founded by David Gorson in 2019, plans capital improvements and potential rent increases at San Sherri, Gorson said. Generally, Vantage’s capital improvements focus on building exteriors and landscaping. Any rent increases would be made incrementally in a bid to keep existing tenants, Gorson said. 

In previous value-add multifamily deals, Vantage scooped up the 96-unit Gulfstream at Dania Beach affordable rental complex at 10 Northwest 10th Court for $8.9 million in 2021; and the two-story, 24-unit Casa Gardenia apartment building at 805 West 30th Street in Hialeah for $3.9 million in 2022, records show. 

Vantage partnered with the Pérez family’s Related Group to purchase the 240-unit Boynton Bay affordable senior apartment complex at 1785 Northeast Fourth Street in Boynton Beach for $48 million in 2022, according to Vantage’s website. Smith & Henzy bought the complex for $53 million last month. 

South Florida multifamily investment sales have slowed due to elevated interest rates and skittish bank lenders. Aside from the Boynton Bay sale last month, the few recent deals include Swiss firm Lurra Capital’s $59 million purchase of the seven-story, 192-unit Queue Apartments building at 817 Southeast Second Avenue in downtown Fort Lauderdale last month. 

In March, New York-based crowdfunding real estate startup FundRebel bought the 12-story, 204-unit Nine Hollywood building at 809 Jackson Street and 320 South Federal Highway for $62 million. That came on the heels of Pantzer Properties’ $83.5 million purchase of the 245-unit The Point at Palm Beach Grove apartment complex at 7130 Okeechobee Boulevard in West Palm Beach in March. 

Investors buying multifamily properties now generally rely on more equity or closed discretionary funds, allowing them to avoid expensive financing, or on debt funds and insurance companies that are lending as banks have become more skittish. 

Vantage’s bank loan for San Sherri is an anomaly. The debt has a fixed interest rate and a low loan-to-value ratio, Gorson said, declining to provide more details. 

Hialeah has boomed in recent years, with developers homing in on the city. Codina Partners, Centennial, and developers James Carr and Manny Kadre plan to redevelop a closed Sears store and adjacent lots at Westland Mall. The Westland Plaza project would consist of 815 apartments, 15 townhomes, roughly 32,624 square feet of commercial space and two parking garages on 15 acres at 1625 West 49th Street. 

MG Developer, led by Alirio Torrealba, is working on the three-phase Metro Parc apartment project with three 10-story buildings and a total of 1,526 units along Easy 24th and 25th streets. 

Prestige Companies, one of the most prolific Hialeah developers, scored a $20 million construction loan in November for the 114-unit Market Station North apartment complex with a pair of three-story buildings and 4,000 square feet of commercial space at 1001 Southeast 11th Street.