Gulfstream Isles apartments sell for $109 million

A Dallas-based investment firm with ambitious growth goals has acquired one of Fort Myers largest multifamily rental complexes for $109 million, property records show.

Lurin Capital’s purchase of the 936-unit Gulfstream Isles complex illustrates just how robust apartment deals in the Southwest Florida submarket have become in the past year.

When the 39-acre complex last sold in October 2016, at a price that set a record for a multifamily project over the past decade, Starwood Capital Group paid $95.2 million for it.

Gulfstream Isles was built in phases beginning in 1986, and features amenities that include four swimming pools, multiple tennis courts and dog parks, a fitness center, on-site coffee shop and children’s playgrounds.

Lurin Capital officials did not return telephone calls for comment on the acquisition of the 1601 Red Cedar Drive complex.

The privately held firm specializes in “repositioning multi-family assets in growth markets across the Southeast United States,” the company’s website says, adding that it tries to identify “strategic opportunities where we can build value in underperforming assets.”

“We seek to acquire assets at a significant discount to replacement cost, maximize value by addressing any physical or operational issues through aggressive asset management and targeted value-add initiatives, and look to capitalize on the investment once the asset is stabilized.

“The Lurin Capital platform currently focuses on investments in distressed and stressed assets,” the website states.

By 2021, the company hopes to have built a portfolio containing 12,500 apartment units and valued in excess of $1 billion in assets under management.

Starwood Capital isn’t the only multifamily rental landlord garnering double-digit returns by selling Southwest Florida apartments, of course.

Last month, Northland Investment Corp. sold the Iona Lakes apartments in Fort Myers for $53 million to Cardone Capital — more than twice the $22 million the Boston-based firm had paid for the complex in 2013.

Matthew Gottesdiener, Northland’s chief investment officer, says the disposition of the 350-unit complex, into which the company had plowed $7 million in upgrades, is part of a larger strategy to redeploy capital in the region.

“The goal is to make our Florida portfolio better through better construction, demographics and financial stability for the next 30 years,” Gottesdiener says. “And we plan to do that by reinvesting proceeds from this sale into other properties.”

Even with the Iona Lakes sale, Northland remains one of the largest multifamily owners in Southwest Florida, with a half-dozen complexes in Lee County containing nearly 2,000 units.

The company also owns the 35-story Element residential tower in downtown Tampa and the 360-unit Echo Lake Apartments, in Lakewood Ranch.