WRH Realty Services buys, renames Coral Cove Apartments

BUYER: W.R.H. The Palms of Clearwater LLLP (principals: Jay Meder, John Withers, Helen Feinberg and J. Mark Rutledge), St. Petersburg

SELLER: NW-Coral Cove LLC

PROPERTY: 25 N. Belcher Road, Clearwater

PRICE: $9.5 million

PREVIOUS PRICE: $12.05 million, November 2004

ATTORNEY FIRM ON DEED: Sarah Swisher Esq. of Nationwide Insurance Co., Columbus, Ohio

PLANS, DESCRIPTION: St. Petersburg-based WRH Realty Services Inc. purchased Coral Cove Apartments for $9.5 million.

The price equated to $47,500 per unit.

The 156,400-square-foot community features 120 one-bedroom units and 80 two-bedroom units. The two-story garden-style apartment complex features a clubhouse, leasing office, fitness center, laundry care center, pool, and car-care center. The eight-acre development has been renamed The Palms of Clearwater Apartments.

More than half of the units (114) were recently renovated, and the new buyer has announced plans to renovate the others as well.

The property was foreclosed on in February and was lender-owned at the time of the sale.

Colliers International Tampa Bay's John Stone and Jason Stanton represented the seller, NW-Coral Cove LLC.

“Coral Cove represented an opportunity to acquire a property with a high profit potential for well below replacement cost,” Stone says in a press release. “This gives the buyer a chance to increase the value of the property by completing the unit renovations and increasing the rental rate for those units.”

The purchase entity W.R.H. The Palms of Clearwater LLLP mortgaged the property to Wells Fargo Bank for $9 million.

WRH Realty Services Inc. is one of the largest real estate investment, property management, construction and consulting firms in the Southeast, with properties in Florida, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia. Specializing in multifamily real estate, WRH Realty Services manages a portfolio of apartment communities with more than 16,000 units.