St. Pete apartment complex gets $40.6 million in financing

A Massachusetts company has lent the owners of the Vantage St. Pete apartment complex $40.6 million.

Eastern Mortgage Capital says in a statement announcing the financing that the loan will allow the “project to stabilize.”

“In this challenging credit environment, the longer amortization, coupled with lower minimum (debt service coverage ratio) and interest rate provided by the loan helped to ensure the highest possible proceeds available, allowing the project to stabilize with long term fixed rate financing,” Peter Panagako, Eastern’s president, says in the statement.

The 211-unit apartment complex with ground-floor retail is on 16th Street North in the city’s EDGE district. According to the complex’s website, units range in size from a 432-square-foot studio to a 924-square-foot two-bedroom.

Monthly rents start at $2,120 for the studio and top out at $3,421 for the two-bedroom apartment.

According to county property records, the complex belongs to an LLC whose address is a P.O. Box in Brighton, Michigan, a city about 50 miles outside of Detroit. Florida’s Division of Corporation’s database, however, lists the St. Pete address of the apartment complex as the LLC’s main address.

The approved representative in the state’s database is Anthony Paesano who has a Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, address. That suburban Detroit address matches that of the law firm Paesano Akkashian, which lists Paesano as a partner on its website.

An LLC named Vantage SPE paid $42.5 million for the property in 2021, according to the property records.

Eastern Mortgage is based in Burlington, a suburb of Boston. According to the statement it “is a direct nationwide MAP lender solely focused on providing FHA-insured financing nationwide for apartments, assisted living properties and skilled nursing facilities.”

The loan, according to the statement, was placed by the Detroit commercial real estate lending firm District Capital.