Colorado developer buys Westchase apartments for $52.8M

TAMPA -- Viera at Westchase, a 330-unit apartment complex in western Hillsborough County, has sold to a Colorado company for $52.8 million.

The sale represents $160,000 a unit on a complex that just changed hands three years ago for $39.8 million. Back then, it was Branch Creek Multifamily Partners, an affiliate of Covenant Capital Group in Nashville, that made the deal.

FREG Viera Westchase LP was the buyer this time around, according to county property records. It's affiliated with Forum Real Estate Group in Denver, and according to its website, is the company's only property holding in Florida.

Forum was founded by Darren Fisk in 2010, and now has 17 properties in nine states.

Forum will assume a $31.5 million mortgage through Walker & Dunlop, which will increase to a principal amount of $39.6 million, according to property records.

Viera at Westchase was built in 1999 at 12401 W. Hillsborough Ave., originally called Arbors at Branch Creek. For a short time following the housing market bust it was known as Eden, a condominium conversion-gone-bust that made national news when it tried to lure renters with the promise of clothing-optional swimming pools.

It's the third real estate deal above $50 million in Hillsborough County this year following the Cortland Partners acquisition of Camden Bayside Apartments in Tampa's Westshore District in January for $85.1 million, and Blackstone Group's $51.5 million purchase of Sabal Palm at Carrollwood on Feb. 27.