Mental Health Care redeveloping Bayshore's Merasol

BUYER: NSP III Inc. (principals: Elizabeth Barron, Dave Hunter and Douglas Arthur), Tampa

SELLER: Tiger Investment Group Inc.

PROPERTY: 6515 Bayshore Blvd., Tampa

PRICE: $1.05 million

PREVIOUS PRICE: $1.81 million, January 2005

TITLE FIRM ON DEED: Title Acquisitions I LLC, Tampa

PLANS, DESCRIPTION: Mental Health Care Inc. purchased the 25-unit Merasol on Bayshore for $1.05 million.

The price equated to $41,960 per unit or $72.34 per square foot.

Located near the entrance to MacDill Air Force Base, the apartment features 14,500 rentable square feet. It was originally built in 1968 and was 85% occupied at the time of the sale.

The bank-owned property was purchased with neighborhood stabilization funds.

Kevin Kelleher, Darron Kattan and Bob Goldfinger of Franklin Street handled the transaction.

“The location was probably a B+ or A, and the asset was probably a C,” Kelleher says. “It was actually above average for an REO.”

Mental Health Care is partnering with DDA Development LLC in the redevelopment of the complex. DDA Development is responsible for the permitting, gutting and complete rehabilitation of the apartment, a project that has been estimated at $3 million.

“We will be taking it down to the walls,” says Bowen Arnold, president of DDA Development. “It hasn't been renovated since it was built 40 years ago. There weren't any electrical outlets in the bathrooms. It just isn't up to code. The roof needs to be done and some of the plumbing. The property also floods.”

The resulting development will be rent restricted.

This will be the third neighborhood stabilization funded apartment redevelopment Mental Health Care has undertaken in two years. The nonprofit group previously redeveloped the 55-unit Elizabeth Arms apartment complex and the 38-unit Holiday Oaks.

The purchase entity NSP III Inc. mortgaged the property to the city of Tampa for $3.01 million.