Arizona company pays nearly $500 million for Florida properties

Cove Communities, an Arizona company that owns mobile home parks and 55 and over communities, has bought five properties in Florida, including one in Lakeland and one near Tampa.

According to the commercial real estate research firm CoStar, Cove spent a combined $448 million on the portfolio. The five properties sold include the 55 and over manufactured communities StrawBerry Ridge Village in Valrico, a suburb of Tampa, and the Cypress Lakes Villages in Lakeland. The company also bought the Big Cypress Golf & Country Club, which is part of Cypress Lakes.

A partial breakdown of what each property sold for, according to CoStar data, includes:

• StrawBerry Ridge Village: $90.78 million ($100,900 a unit)
• Hyde Park Senior Mobile Home Park, Winter Garden: $45.8 million ($115,700 a unit)
• Bear Creek, Ormond Beach: $71.54 million($110,700 a unit)
• Lake Griffin Harbor, Leesburg: $33.67 million ($96,200 a unit)

Neither Cove nor Tampa-based Sembler Investments, which CoStar identified as the seller, responded to a request for comment.

Cove is not new to spending big money Florida. Late year the company paid $363.12 million for Jamaica Bay, a manufactured home community on Tamiami Trail in Fort Myers. And in 2018, the company spent $165 million on a pair of properties in Sarasota — $90.77 million for Camelot Lakes Village and $74.225 million for Camelot East Village.

The company owns 22 communities in Florida, including three 55 and over RV resorts, three all age RV resorts and 16 55 and over communities. The company also owns communities in California, Georgia, South Carolina, Maine and Canada.