Teachers Insurance buys St. Petersburg apartments

Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association has purchased the Fusion 1560 apartment complex in St. Petersburg for $81.1 million, records show, continuing a flurry of multifamily rental transactions along the Gulf Coast in 2018.

The New York-based investment firm’s deal for the five-story complex, at 1560 Central Ave. in St. Petersburg, marks the largest apartment transaction in St. Petersburg since the start of the year.

In January, Camden Property Trust spent $126.3 million for an 18-story, rental tower at 330 Third St. South. The 358-unit complex today is known as the Camden Pier District Apartments.

Around the same time, Equus Capital Partners bought the Reserve at Gateway, a 314-unit complex, in the Carillon section of Pinellas County at 500 Trinity Lane.

Carlos Burneo, a director at Teachers Insurance affiliate TH Real Estate who oversees multifamily acquisitions in Florida, says Fusion 1560 was an attractive investment because it is “near the main thoroughfare in St. Petersburg providing connectivity to surrounding employment, retail and entertainment centers.”

Fusion 1560 was completed in 2010 and contains 326 units, together with amenities that include a two-story fitness center, on-site wine storage, a swimming pool and a wi-fi café.

Teachers Insurance bought the property from an affiliate of Chicago-based Mesirow Financial, which paid $57.5 million for it in May 2015, according to Pinellas County property records.

Teachers Insurance has been making headlines of late along the Gulf Coast more for dispositions of prominent properties.

In April, the firm with more than $500 billion in assets under management sold the two-building Urban Centre office complex in Tampa’s Westshore Business District for $143.1 million, to Starwood Capital Corp.

Perhaps most prominently, however, the firm continues to own a half-interest in the 1.2 million-square-foot International Plaza shopping mall, also in Westshore.