Passco Cos. is keeping busy this year, most recently paying $75 million for a 400-unit community located in the growing submarket of Bradenton in the Tampa Bay Area of Florida. The community, ParkCrest Landings, is situated within a 67-acre site that includes nine acres of lakes and 40 acres of nature preserves along a tributary of the Manatee River.
One reason the property was attractive to Passco is its location in Bradenton, which is experiencing economic expansion. “Bradenton is one of the most dynamic submarkets on the west coast of Florida,” said Colin Gillis, vice president of acquisitions for the Southeast at Passco Cos. “Manatee County has been one of the most stable counties in the state of Florida since 2010, and is continuing to demonstrate consistent economic growth. It has added more than 11,500 jobs over the last 24 months, and has one of the highest per capita incomes in the state.”
The west coast of Florida has seen strong growth in job creation and rental prices over the last several years, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. The data also shows that the Bradenton-Sarasota metro area ranks fifth in highest percentage of job growth during the last five years at almost 17 percent.
ParkCrest is also located near some of the area’s largest employers, including Manatee Memorial Hospital, the headquarters for retailer Bealls and Tropicana, IMG Academy, and the municipalities for the city and county.
“What is nice about a market like Bradenton is that not only will it benefit from the growth of its own demand drivers, it will leverage off of the success and continued growth of Tampa and St. Pete to the North and Sarasota to the South,” Gillis added.
Bradenton is also thriving in terms of rent growth and multifamily demand. “What makes Bradenton especially unique is that demand for new apartment acquisitions in this market is always very competitive amongst owners that currently own in the area,” he said.
Bradenton is centrally located between Tampa and Sarasota, with immediate access to I-75.
The community, located at 5725 1st Ave. East, was built in 2015 by Tampa-based CKT Development and offers 17 three-story buildings. Amenities include a clubhouse and theater, fitness center, lakeside sun decks, resort-style swimming pools, 1.2-acre dog park, 1.5 miles of walking trails, cyber cafe, game room, and kayak/canoe launch and storage with direct access to the Manatee River.
ParkCrest is also located next to Tom Bennett Park, a 200-acre recreation and greenspace area with large open fields, playgrounds, fishing pieces, volleyball courts and soccer fields.
“These best-in-class amenities truly deliver the lifestyle that residents are demanding and appeal to variety of demographics from millennials, to young families, to baby boomers,” Gillis said. “The ability to attract a diverse group of demographics, coupled with its unique and innovative amenities will further drive demand for the asset and allow for strong rent growth over time.”
JBM Chairman & CEO Jamie May represented Passco and the seller, CKT Development in the transaction. Chris Black of KeyBank Real Estate Capital’s Commercial Mortgage Group arranged Fannie Mae acquisition financing for Passco.
Other acquisitions for Passco this year include its $80 million purchase of a suburban Phoenix community earlier this month and a $54 million purchase of an Orlando community in May.
This article was originally published on Multi-Housing News.
