Radco Cos. buys Bay Park for $29.85 million

BUYER: City Park Clearwater (Radco-NREC Bay Park Holdings LLC), Atlanta
SELLER: Laramar Bay Park Partners LLC
PROPERTY: 101 S. Old Coachman Road, Clearwater
PRICE: $29.85 million
PREVIOUS PRICE: $14.03 million, October 2010
LAW FIRM ON DEED: DLA Piper LLP (US), Tampa

PLANS, DESCRIPTION:
Atlanta-based The Radco Cos. purchased the 228-unit Bay Park Apartments for $29.85 million.

The price equated to $130,921 per unit. That figure is higher than the two-year average price per unit for multifamily space ($72,609) in the Tampa Bay area, according to the CoStar Group.

Atlanta-based REIT Post Property originally developed the apartment complex in 1990.

The 11-building garden-style apartment was constructed on a 15.6-acre parcel near the intersection of Gulf to Bay Boulevard and U.S. 19. Units consist of studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom floor plans and have an average of 1,010 square feet of living space.

Community amenities include a swimming pool with sun deck, putting green, dog park, volleyball and tennis courts and a leasing center with office space, meeting rooms, an exercise facility and movie theater.

It was 95% occupied at the time of the sale.

Patrick Dufour, Scott Ramey, Marc de Baptiste and Richard Donnellan of ARA represented the seller, an affiliate of Chicago-based Laramar Group.

“Select units in the community were partially upgraded in 2008 and are achieving rent premiums for those upgrades,” Dufour says in a press release. “Radco plans to expand upon the original upgrades and further reposition the property.”

Radco plans to invest about $2.1 million to reposition the asset. The clubhouse will be extensively renovated and expanded. The new owner will also upgrade unit interiors, improve the building exteriors and rebrand it as City Park Clearwater.

Radco financed the acquisition through a $23.79 million Freddie Mac mortgage from Walker & Dunlop LLC and private capital.

The property is Radco's first acquisition in Florida and is part of the company's expansion. Radco added 20 new multifamily communities totaling more than 5,500 units to its portfolio in the past year, bringing its assets owned to 10,404 units. Radco plans to add about 3,000 units in the Southeast and Midwest to its portfolio in 2015.