Construction begins on Largo luxury apartments

LARGO -- A year after securing a $30 million construction loan through NorthMarq Capital, construction has begun on a 260-unit Class A multifamily complex in Largo known as The Boulevard Apartments.

Dockside Investors, a company affiliated with developer Stephen McConihay, recently began construction at 2098 Seminole Blvd. He secured a building permit through Fort Myers-based Brooks & Freund for $37.3 million.

McConihay also successfully rezoned a 14-acre property in Pasco County next to a mobile home park where he plans to build a 228-unit complex. He bought that property in 1999 for $240,000.

The Largo property was purchased in 2012 for $1.3 million, and is described as “vacant commercial land” by Pinellas County property officials. It was the home to a 138-lot RV park, according to published reports.

A rental listing online for The Boulevard suggests rents of three-bedroom units there will run $1.25 per square foot, or $1,610. That's well above the $795 average effective rent in the Largo submarket in 2014, according to Reis real estate research.

The construction cost is more than $143,400 per unit. That's below the $185,600 per unit several multifamily properties sold for during the last quarter of 2014, according to Cushman & Wakefield, based on the transfer of $546.4 million in communities during that period.