General Services buys Gull Harbor complex

An active Virginia-based multifamily rental housing investor has acquired the Gull Harbor Apartments in Pinellas County, just weeks after buying a similar property nearby.

General Services Corp. paid $55 million for the 17105 Gulf Blvd. complex in North Redington Beach, in mid-October, according to county property records.

That purchase followed the $66 million acquisition of the 274-unit Allure at Gateway community, in Pinellas Park, in late September.

At Gull Harbor, General Services’ affiliate GLHF LLC may attempt to convert the 263 apartments to condominiums, based on documents filed with Pinellas County.

General Services, which bought the complex from affiliates of Tampa’s Avesta Real Estate Holdings, did not return telephone calls for comment on its purchase or future plans for the complex.

The seven-story Gull Harbor was completed in 1971. Rental rates in the complex range from $1,545 per month to $3,210 monthly for some two-bedroom units, according to Apartments.com.

Although close in proximity, there are several significant differences between General Services’ Allure at Gateway deal and the purchase of Gull Harbor.

Most notably, Allure at Gateway is a little more than a year old, having been completed in August 2019 by developer NRP Group. And unlike Gull Harbor, a mid-rise complex, Allure at Gateway contains just four floors.

The Richmond, Va.-based General Services has been among the most active investors of multifamily rental product along the Gulf Coast in recent years. In all, the company has spent more than $600 million to buy a dozen communities in Tampa, Clearwater and Sarasota, to list a few.

In 2019, it bought the 330-unit Courtney at Bay Pines apartments, in St. Petersburg, for $85.1 million, and the year prior invested $78 million to acquire the Grande Reserve at Park Isle, in Clearwater, which has 390 units.