Snell Isle apartment sells for $32 million

ST. PETERSBURG — Cleveland-based property management firm Burton Carol Management purchased the 272-unit Snell Isle Luxury Waterfront Apartment Homes for $32 million.

The price equals $117,647 per unit. That figure is more than the current average price per unit ($70,803) in the Tampa Bay area, according to the CoStar Group.

The 236,316-square-foot property features nine buildings spread across 9.3 acres. Amenities include a health and fitness center, a business center, two swimming pools, a putting green, a sand volleyball court, walking paths and three fishing docks. It is located at 1515 Eden Isle Blvd. N.E., in St. Petersburg.

Consolidated Management, the predecessor of Burton Carol Management, owned the apartment complex for 22 years. It sold it in 2006 as part of the estate-planning process for the end of Consolidated Management. In 2010, the multifamily portion of what previously was Consolidated Management formed Burton Carol Management.

At the same time, the new owner had gutted and vacated the apartment complex with plans to turn it into condos. Eventually that owner lost control of the property.

Joy Anzalone, chief operating officer for Burton Carol Management, says the current seller came in at that point and extensively renovated the property and stabilized it. The community is now 95% occupied.

“They took the property we had and made it even better,” Anzalone says. “We wanted to be able to acquire that property to make it a part of our portfolio for well into the future and to take it to the next level.”

Burton Carol Management plans to enhance the property by painting the building exterior, changing some decorative features on its roofs and creating Zen garden features.

Burton Carol Management has offices in Cleveland, Southfield, Mich. and St. Petersburg. Locally it owns the Chesapeake and Grande Bay Apartments in Clearwater and Palmway Village in St. Petersburg. It has another 17 properties in Ohio and four in Michigan.

The affiliated purchase entities, TI Resort, T.I. 105th Street, WBR Raccoon and MCR Raccoon, mortgaged the property to Bellwether Enterprise Real Estate Capital for $20.15 million.