New York investment firms snap up St. Pete apartments

A pair of New York-based multifamily investment firms have spent a combined $149 million to acquire two St. Petersburg apartment complexes, Pinellas County property records show.

ESG Kullen, a firm founded in 2009 by Eric Granowsky and Thomas DelPonti, bought the Trellis on the Lakes apartments for $80.85 million. The 11401 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St. N. complex contains 688 units on 66 acres, and was completed in 1982.

The property was previously owned by Camden Operating Ltd. Partnership, records indicate.

Rents in the community, which contains a pair of swimming pools and tennis courts and a fitness center, among other amenities, range from $913 per month to $1,415 per month.

ESG Kullen, which specializes in acquiring and renovating distressed assets, owns 28 multifamily communities containing more than 3,500 units in Florida, New York, California and Texas, according to its website.

Granowsky did not return a pair of telephone calls for comment.

TGM Associates, meanwhile, has purchased the Ibis Walk Apartments for $68 million, records show.

That 401-unit complex, at 871 Ibis Walk Place N., was completed in 2014. Rents in the community range from $1,180 per month to $2,045 per month.

John Gochberg, TGM's co-founder, managing principal and CEO, says the purchase is in keeping with its strategy.

“We look for properties in high-growth, key locations with positive pressures, such as the cost of renting being a discount to the cost of buying a home,” he says. “We look for areas with job growth, retail and nightlife, and in a perfect world, major intersections, and areas that in five to 10 years will remain strong.”

The deal brings to five the number of communities TGM owns in St. Petersburg, Sarasota and Naples.

In mid-August, TGM bought the Bay Isle Key apartments, also in St. Petersburg, for $93.75 million. The company is in the midst of renovating hundreds of units in the 582-unit complex, at 11850 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St., which was completed on 50 acres in phases in 1998 and 2004.

Formed in 1991, TGM has invested more than $2.9 billion in equity in buying more than 58,000 apartments nationwide, according to its website.