Senior Management Advisors, ValStone buy, renovating Palazzo Di Oro

BUYER: VS St. Pete LLC, Baltimore

SELLER: OSM-REO Palazzio Di Oro LLC

PROPERTY: 3600 34th St. S., St. Petersburg

PRICE: $2 million

PREVIOUS PRICE: $4.9 million, March 2007

LAW FIRM ON DEED: Barnett Bolt Kirkwood Long & McBride PA, Tampa

PLANS, DESCRIPTION: Clearwater-based Senior Management Advisors and private equity investment firm ValStone Partners LLC purchased the closed assisted-living facility Palazzo Di Oro for $2 million.

The price equated to $17 per square foot.

The two-building development features a total of 120,784 square feet of living space on 4.8 acres. Built as a hotel in 1971, the Palazzo Di Oro was renovated in the 1990s and converted to an assisted-living facility. Additional improvements were added in 2005. In late 2011, OSM-REO Palazzio Di Oro LLC, an affiliate of Minneapolis-based Presidium Asset Solutions, acquired it in a foreclosure.

Senior Management Advisors, along with financial and other assistance from ValStone Partners, has already started cleaning up the property with the goal of renovating it. The redeveloped property is scheduled to open in late 2014 with 150 residential units, including 30 devoted to memory care. The new owners have just started the bidding process to find contractors to complete the work, according to Alex Lopez, director of sales and marketing at Senior Management Advisors.

The Palazzo Di Oro renovations will include remodeling the first floor to include an Internet cafe, library, billiards parlor, beauty salon, barber shop and private dining room and more. All resident rooms will be renovated to include kitchenettes with built-in refrigerator and microwave, large closets and private baths. Exterior renovation will include landscaping, an updated entrance and parking lot.

Bradley Clousing of Senior Living Investment Brokerage Inc. facilitated the transaction, and Jordan Behar of Behar + Peteranecz: Architecture is project architect.

Including Palazzo Di Oro, new owners have partnered on 11 senior-living community projects. Senior Management Advisors develops and manages senior-living communities in Georgia and Florida. ValStone, which has offices in Birmingham, Ala., and Baltimore, is a private-equity firm.

As of Sept. 30, ValStone Partners had $318 million in assets under management, which included real estate owned.