Richman Group to develop Naples multifamily project

The Richman Group of Cos., the nation’s seventh-largest developer of apartments in the U.S. and a major multifamily presence along the Gulf Coast with dozens of holdings in Tampa and Clearwater, has acquired land to build a new community in Naples.

The Greenwich, Conn.-based firm invested $8.85 million to acquire a 43.4-acre tract known as Magnolia Pond in Collier County.

The property is entitled for 434 apartment units.

The purchase comes as Southwest Florida, like many parts of the country, is experiencing a renaissance in interest in apartment living amid job growth, population surge and changing demographics.

To date, however, the majority of the new multifamily development in the three-county region, which comprises Charlotte, Lee and Collier counties, has been centered around Lee County.

Richman put the Magnolia Pond property under contract in early October and closed on the site late last month.

“It was a very compressed period of time, especially when dealing with raw land in Collier County,” says Ron Zeigler, a senior advisor at commercial real estate brokerage firm SVN Lotus, who represented Richman in the transaction.

“But the buyer believed in the property and sees Naples as a growth area,” adds Zeigler, who collaborated on the transaction with SVN KONA advisors Bryan Flores in Naples and Bryan Myers in Fort Myers.

All three agents are members of SVN’s Land Alliance, a group of agents who collectively work on land transactions throughout the state.

Richman officials did not respond to an email for comment on the Naples transaction or potential development there.

The company is well versed in the city, however. It already owns the College Park and Summer Lakes apartment communities there, according to Richman’s website.

Richman also is developing a new 222-unit apartment project on nearly 10 acres just outside downtown Sarasota, on land that had been the Ringling Shopping Center for nearly five decades.