Tampa's Aileron Holdings developing Gladiolus land

BUYER: McGregor 325 LLC (principal: Robert Beard), Tampa
SELLER: McGregor Commons Inc.
PROPERTY: 11100 and 15031 Gladiolus Drive, Fort Myers
PRICE: $4.5 million
PREVIOUS PRICE: $10.85 million, January 2006 and $1.2 million, May 2004
LAW FIRM ON DEED: Bolanos Truxton PA, Fort Myers

PLANS, DESCRIPTION: Aileron Holdings purchased 28.9 acres at the corner of Gladiolus Drive and McGregor Boulevard for $4.5 million.

The price equated to $15,571 per acre.

The property was originally proposed for a four-building condominium development, called Plaza Del Sol, around 2005. However, the land has largely sat vacant since the downturn.

Aileron Holdings plans to develop a 325-unit apartment complex. The gated development will feature a clubhouse, swimming pool, walking trails around a lake and fitness and business centers.

“The vacancy rate in that primary market is 3% and almost nothing has been built since 2006,” says Joe Bonora, co-founder and managing director of Aileron Capital Management. “Rents have been rising.”

Bonora says the new development will stay within the prior proposed project's building footprint and site plan, which is expected to speed up the approval process significantly. The company is optimistic that it will have all approvals and building permits by September.

“We were definitely attracted by the speed to market,” Bonora says. “We expect to be the first to market with a large, class-A apartment complex. If there was no site plan or we needed to go through a rezone then we would not have done the deal.”

Tampa's Aileron Holdings, which manages investment funds through Aileron Capital Management LLC, has been doing smaller scale apartment, assisted-living and townhome developments in Florida and California. The Fort Myers project is its largest apartment project so far.

Construction of the $26 million development is scheduled to take 14 months. Brooks & Freund of Fort Myers will be the general contractor for the project.

Purchase entity McGregor 325 LLC mortgaged the property to the former owner, McGregor Commons Inc., for $2.5 million.