Fort Meyrs, Fla.—Marcus & Millichap has brokered the sale of Bella Rose and Park Place, two apartment communities in Fort Meyers located across the street from each other that total 337 units. The combined sales price was $19.3 million, or $57,122 per unit. Michael Regan and Frank Carriera, vice presidents investments in Marcus & Millichap’s Tampa office, represented the seller and the buyer.

“The sale of these two assets speaks to the investor demand we are experiencing in southwest Florida,” says Regan. “The properties provide the new owner with the potential to add value through strategic upgrades and capital infusions.”

Both properties are located on Deleon Street in Fort Myers, Fla., less than one-tenth of a mile from Colonial Boulevard and U.S. Highway 41, which experience daily traffic counts of more than 49,000 and 57,000 vehicles per day, respectively.  Built in 1979, Bella Rosa Apartments is a 160-unit, 123,780-rentable-square-foot community that consist of 12 two-story building and a one-story clubhouse. Park Place Apartments is a 177-unit, 158,000-rentable-square foot apartment community that was built in 1973. It features 13 two-story buildings. Both properties have pools, fitness centers and playgrounds.

Source: https://www.multihousingnews.com/post/todays-deals-two-fort-myers-assets-trade-for-19-3-million/

An affordable housing group bought the Praxis of Deerfield Beach apartments for $14.1 million.

The price for the 224-unit complex works out to $62,946 per apartment. The property last sold for $7.1 million in April 2013, so it nearly doubled in value since the last sale.

Deerfield Beach Apartment Properties, a Largo-based company managed by Benjamin Mallah, sold the property to Stafford Place Associates, a Reston, Va.-based company managed by the Affordable Housing Institute and President Robert C. Hartnett. Oak Grove Commercial Mortgage financed the deal with an $11.44 million mortgage through Fannie Mae.

A portfolio of five Tampa Bay hotels, including a waterfront property once targeted for a major redevelopment, is on the market.

Equity Management Partners Inc. has renovated all of the properties over the last several years, Principal Ben Mallah said.

“Our company’s moving in the direction now where we don’t want to be in it for the long term,” Mallah said.

The portfolio includes the following:

• Best Western Bay Harbor, 261 rooms, 7700 Courtney Campbell Causeway, Tampa. At the height of the real estate market, a developer targeted this property for a redevelopment into the Bay region’s first Ritz-Carlton, but those plans collapsed when the market crashed. The money Mallah has invested in this property could potentially make a redevelopment too costly — when those plans were in the works before, the hotel was in disrepair and would have been far less expensive. Mallah has invested $5 million in the hotel and the on-site Hogan’s Beach Restaurant, a Hulk Hogan-themed bar and restaurant.
• Ramada Westshore, 237 rooms, 1200 N. West Shore Blvd, Tampa
• Fairfield by Marriott, 82 suites, 12260 Morris Bridge Road, Temple Terrace
• Baymont Inn and Suites Busch Gardens, 150 suites, 3001 University Center Drive, Tampa
• Ramada Clearwater Airport, 120 rooms, 3580 Ulmerton Road, Clearwater

“They’re all very good, strong operating properties,” Mallah said.

Mallah and his team are asking $100 million for the portfolio and expect to market it for at least the next month. Large commercial properties typically aren’t brought to market with asking prices, but Mallah said he’d rather expedite the negotiation process.

The asking price breaks down to $117,650 per hotel room. The InterContinental Tampasold for $124,500 per room in January, though the buyer is planning $7 million in upgrades. At the high end of the spectrum, Hilton Clearwater Beach sold for more than $300,000 per room, and Tampa Bay Lightning Owner Jeff Vinik paid more than $275,000 per room last fall for the Tampa Marriott Waterside Hotel and Marina.

“We don’t want a lot of people coming to us trying to waste their time or our time with ridiculously low offers,” Mallah said, “and it’s not a fire sale. It’s a not a distressed sale.”

Tampa Bay’s hospitality market has seen a good amount of activity in the last 12 months, between investment sales and development plans. Hotel occupancy numbers have been improving steadily — Hillsborough County collected a record bed tax in December, according to Visit Tampa Bay. Investors are also interested in the market as higher prices and lower returns in gateway markets entice them to secondary markets like Tampa.

“We’re open to anything that makes sense,” Mallah said, ” but of course it would be an ideal situation for us to sell it as a package.”

Equity Management Partners Inc. has acquired the Boardwalk at Morris Bridge Road, a 580-bed student housing development on Fowler Avenue just west of Interstate 75.

The group closed on the property yesterday, paying $17.2 million. Planned renovations include remodeling the fitness center, clubhouse and movie theater room, as well as resurfacing the parking lot and adding a pet park with trees. Equity Management will also upgrade the bedroom furniture in the rooms.

Multifamily properties — especially those with upside potential and in need of renovation — are in high investor demand in Tampa Bay, because investors are able to raise the rents after improving the property.

“We are excited to renovate and operate The Boardwalk at Morris Bridge Road — we have scheduled renovations to the common areas, as well as many in-unit upgrades,” Principal Ben Mallah said in a written statement. “As the University of South Florida continues to grow and expand, Boardwalk will remain a highly desired residence location for both students and members of the overall university community.”

A new owner has bought the Mayan Inn and is planning a multi-million dollar renovation to the 112-room hotel by the end of the year.

Tampa-based developer Benjamin Mallah of Mallah Investments bought the beachside Daytona Beach property for $6.4 million in a transaction that closed Feb. 20. The seller was Arbor Commercial Mortgate, a New York-based real estate investment trust that acquired the hotel in 2009 from Bray & Gillespie LLC, after that company went into bankruptcy.

Bray & Gillespie, which did business under the name Ocean Waters, at one time owned 35 beachside hotels from Ormond Beach to Daytona Beach Shores.

“It is now time to bring the Mayan Inn back up to par as a historic landmark property on Daytona Beach,” Mallah said in a statement on Friday. “I am excited for the opportunity to see our results and also enjoy the property and the beach.”

Mallah added that the renovations include restoring the hotel’s bar, which will sport a new theme inspired by professional wrestler Jimmy Hart, nicknamed “The Mouth of the South.”

Tim Johnson, principal broker for the company that managed the deal, said the overall Mayan theme in the hotel would remain the same. He also said that the property is being managed by a third party and employees have “the opportunity to stay at the property,”

The entire property will undergo renovations to restore its competitive presence and curb appeal but will not be closed to the public during renovations, Johnson said.

The eight-story beachfront hotel was constructed in 1973. The property’s proximity to the Daytona Beach pier and beach makes it a destination for out-of-state tourists and locals, the company said in a statement.

Local industry observer Bob Davis, president and CEO of the Hotel & Lodging Association of Volusia County, said the sale of the Mayan Inn and the new owner’s plans to renovate comes amid changes in ownership at a number of other existing area beachside hotels. Several hotels, including some where the ownership has not changed, have either recently completed or announced makeover projects, he added.

“That just shows more people are investing in hospitality in Volusia County and things are on fire,” Davis said. “We are getting a better product in the market with the renovations.”

Mallah Investments formed in 1991 in Oakland, California, and relocated to Tampa Bay in 2004. The company owns and operates several hotels, multi-family residential units and restaurants throughout Florida, including Hogan’s Beach restaurant in Tampa, which is themed after the wrestler Hulk Hogan.

TAMPA — The Baymont Inn and Suites — so close to Busch Gardens that all rooms have roller coaster views — has been sold to a Latin American investor.

The purchase price was $6.95 million, showing a hefty profit for the seller, Mallah Investments of Tampa.

“We bought it for about $4 million, put a million into it and sold it for almost $7 million,” Benjamin Mallah said Tuesday of the 150-room hotel he owned for barely two years.

As is typical, the purchase was made by a limited liability company, with Mallah never meeting the actual buyer or even knowing his name. But he described the new owner as an “experienced hotel operator” with other hotels in Naples and Orlando, as well as business interests in Latin America.

The Baymont Inn at 3001 University Center Drive will continue to operate as a franchisee of the Wyndham Worldwide chain.

In Tampa Bay and nationwide, the hotel business is going strong, as both leisure and business travel continue to bounce back from the recession.

“It’s a great time to be selling, and it will be for another couple of years, and it’s not a bad time to be buying,” said Kent Schwarz, executive vice president of Colliers International Hotels.

Mallah’s company, which moved from California to Tampa Bay in 2004, has a considerable portfolio of hotels including the Best Western Bay Harbor on Courtney Campbell Causeway.

Among Mallah’s other properties are the Clearwater Beach Hotel, Ramada Inns in mid-Pinellas and Tampa’s West Shore area, and the Fairfield by Marriott in Temple Terrace. He is also rehabbing a 112-room hotel in Daytona Beach.

Mallah said he looks for distressed, mid-sized hotels like the Baymont Inn, which he bought for $3.75 million in a foreclosure sale two years ago.

“We’re short term; we like to come in, fix up, stabilize” and resell, he said.

The Baymont Inn attracted him — and its new owner — partly because every room has a view of a Busch Gardens roller coaster. And with rates ranging from about $79 to $129 for a two-room suite, depending on the season, “it’s very affordable,” Mallah said. “You get your money’s worth in getting a lot of space and a great location if you want to go to Busch or be close to I-75.”

So-called “midscale” hotels — brands like Baymont Inn, La Quinta and Ramada that offer limited services — are attractive to buyers because of their comparatively low operating costs. While the hospitality business in the Busch Gardens area has been slower to recover than in other parts of Tampa Bay, the Baymont Inn and its nearby competitors reported an 18 percent average increase in revenues in the past 12 months, one survey found.

“It’s a little slower in coming back,” Schwarz said, “but it’s definitely coming back.”

BRADENTON — A Bradenton company that renovated and expanded a low-income apartment complex on the edge of the county’s southern industrial corridor has sold it after 18 years of ownership.

The Elm Lake Apartments, a 64-unit complex at 6318 14th St. E, sold for $2.5 million on April 17 to a Largo buyer, according to Manatee County property records. The new owner, a company managed by Benjamin Mallah, is one of several related companies that own apartments.

The buyer paid the equivalent of $39,062 per unit, which is in line with the average selling price for multifamily units sold in Manatee County during the first quarter of 2015, according to a report generated by the Sarasota office of Coldwell Banker Commercial NRT.

The transaction allowed the seller to pay off a $1.18 million mortgage it took out in 1997. Elm Lake Apartments LTD, one of several companies managed by Sam F. Hardee of Bradenton, purchased the apartments that year for $375,000. At the time, it consisted of a single eight-unit apartment building, according to county records. Over the next two years, permitting records show, Hardee’s company built three 16-unit buildings on the 4.6-acre property, as well as another eight-unit building and a recreation center. The property is at the northern edge of the Whitfield industrial district between U.S. 41 and U.S. 301.

The first apartments on the property were built in 1983.

Units in the complex range between a 592-square-foot one-bedroom model to two- and three-bedroom models of more than 1,000 square feet each. The property’s amenities include a clubhouse, basketball court, volleyball court, playground and two onsite laundry facilities.

One of Hardee’s companies previously ran into financial trouble with another Bradenton property it owned, the Citrus Meadows Apartments. In 2011, the 200-unit complex was foreclosed upon after Hardee’s company lost in a $5.7 million suit brought by mortgagor IMG Investment LLC, according to court records. The complex was sold the following year for $6.75 million.

Elm Lake’s new owner has previously owned apartments in Bradenton. One of Mallah’s companies sold the 92-unit Cortez Place Apartments in 2011 for $4.64 million after owning it for four years.

The Elm Lake apartments will remain a low-income complex. The Florida Housing Finance Corp. has extended a low-income housing agreement it had with the previous owner to the new owner.

Marcus & Millichap, an Encino, Calif.-based commercial real estate investment services firm, represented the buyer in the transaction.

BUYER: Ellenton Apartments LLC (registered agent: Thomas Nash II), Clearwater
SELLER: Ellenton Housing Associates Ltd.
PROPERTY: 3419 E. 16th St. or 1651 36th Ave., Ellenton
PRICE: $6.6 million
LAW FIRM ON DEED: Stearns Weaver Miller Weissler Alhadeff & Sitterson PA, Miami.

PLANS, DESCRIPTION: Equity Management Partners Inc. purchased the 168-unit The Oaks at Ellenton apartments for $6.6 million.

The price equated to $39,286 per unit.

The complex has 11 residential buildings and a clubhouse on 17.1 acres.

The 15-year-old complex was developed using the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program. That limits rental rates and the income of tenants.

“It needs some cosmetic work,” says Ben Mallah, principal of Equity Management Partners. “The parking lot needs to be redone. It just needs a freshening up and a facelift. We will also be doing upgrades to the units.”

TAMPA — The Best Western Bay Harbor, a six-story, 261-room resort on a prime waterfront site in the Rocky Point area, is changing hands.

Chicago investor Oxford Capital Group paid $34.5 million for the 6.7-acre property at 7700 W. Courtney Campbell Causeway. Oxford bought the one-time Radisson Bay Harbor hotel from Tampa investor Ben Mallah, principal of Equity Management Partners.

Mallah recently spent $4.3 million renovating the hotel, which sold for more than twice what he paid for it in 2012. CBRE Hotels arranged the sale.

“The Bay Harbor is a well-performing full-service hotel with a choice waterfront location in one of the country’s top conference and resort destination markets,” said Robert Taylor, CBRE senior vice president. “New ownership now has the opportunity to further upgrade, rebrand and inject new management into this beautiful bayfront asset.”

The property includes a restaurant/bar that had been known as Hogan’s Beach through a licensing agreement with wrestler Hulk Hogan, who lives in the area. Hogan did not have an ownership role.

The bar is still open for business, but it was announced last week that it was in the process of being rebranded and renamed. John Rutledge, president and chief executive of Oxford, said that is still the intent.

The resort was built in 1974. In addition to the restaurant and bar, the property has additional bars, beach volleyball and soccer, jet ski rentals, wooden pier and boat dock, heated outdoor pool, 24-hour fitness center and gift shop.

Source: http://www.tbo.com/news/business/rocky-point-hotel-hogans-beach-restaurant-sold-for-345-million-20151020/

The Four Points Sheraton in the heart of the tourist district in Orlando has traded hands for $23 million. The 19-story 301 room hotel, located at 5905 International Drive, was sold to Benjamin Mallah, principal and founder of Largo-based Equity Management Partners. The purchase price works out to $76,412 per room key. The company is planning a $4 million renovation that will provide some much-needed upgrades and modernization. The asset was last sold for $15 million to Icon Orlando LLC in 2015.

Sheraton Suites Tampa Airport Westshore sells for $21.25 million 04/14/16 [Last modified: Friday, April 15, 2016 8:21am]
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© 2016 Tampa Bay Times

CLEARWATER, FLA., September 29, 2015 – Marcus & Millichap (NYSE: MMI), a leading commercial real estate investment services firm with offices throughout the United States and Canada, today announced the sale of Prospect Towers Apartments, a 208-unit multifamily building located in Clearwater, Florida, according to Richard D. Matricaria, regional manager of the firm’s Tampa office. The asset sold for $8,000,000.

Michael P. Regan and Francesco P. Carriera, both vice president investments in Marcus & Millichap’s Tampa office, had the exclusive listing to market the property on behalf of the seller. The buyer was secured and represented by Francesco P. Carriera and Michael P. Regan. 

Prospect Towers Apartments is an iconic, 17-story, high-rise tower located in the heart of Clearwater at 801 Chestnut Street, and is just a half mile walk to the Intracoastal Waterway. Currently the property is operated as an affordable, age-restricted community in which residents must exceed the age of 62 years, but it has the potential to lease at market rate as a conventional multifamily property. The property consists of one, 17-story residential building as well as an additional one-story building which serves as the maintenance shop. The residential building is comprised of 96 efficiency units ranging from 384 to 411 rentable square feet and 112 one-bedroom/one-bathroom units with 530 rentable square feet.

“This was a great opportunity to represent a client who had owned the property since inception. The seller, a non-profit organization, has plans to redeploy the monies into other senior programs within the community,” says Carriera. “The buyer Benjamin Mallah plans to keep the property as a 55 years and older community and make improvements to provide clients a quality place to live.”

A Fort Lauderdale-based executive of brokerage Marcus & Millichap handled the sale of an affordable-housing development near Cape Coral for $8.5 million, well above the list price.

The sale price of the 168-unit Crossings at Cape Coral, financed by the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, was $600,000 above the list price.

Evan P. Kristol, senior vice president,investments, in the Fort Lauderdale office of Marcus & Millichap represented both the seller, a New York City-based institutional investor, and the buyer Benjamin Mallah, a Florida-based private investor.

Crossings at Cape Coral, located at 1150 Hancock Creek South Boulevard, was sold after three months after it was listed for sale.

The property is comprised of eight low-rise residential buildings and a community clubhouse on an 11-acre site.

Crossings at Cape Coral was built and placed into the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) Program in 2000. The initial tax credit compliance period expired in 2015. But extended use restrictions will remain in place until 2050, requiring the owner to offer 100 percent of the units to residents who earn no more than 60 percent of the area’s median income.

Investor Sells Orlando Multifamily for $7.3M

Investor Ben Mallah has sold the Kensington Cottages at 2917 Burroughs Dr. in Orlando, FL to DLP Realty for almost $7.35 million, or about $43,000 per unit.

The 169-unit apartment complex at 2909 Burroughs Drive in Orlando was bought by Ormond Beach-based Kensington Cottages Ventures LLC for $7.35 million, or $43,467 per unit, according to Orange County records. Largo-based Orlando Cottages LLC sold the complex, which was built in 1984 and which it bought in November 2014, for $3.1 million, Orange County records show.

Cole Whitaker and Hal Warren of Berkadia represented the seller. The buyer handled the sale in-house.

For more information on this transaction, please refer to CoStar COMPS #3646124.

LAKELAND, FL – Marcus & Millichap (NYSE: MMI), a leading commercial real estate investment services firm with offices throughout the United States and Canada, announced the sale of Jasmine Homes, a 120-unit apartment property located in Lakeland, Florida, according to Ari Ravi, regional manager of the firm’s Tampa office. The asset sold for $7,400,000.

Nicholas Meoli and Michael Donaldson, both vice president investments in Marcus & Millichap’s Tampa office, had the exclusive listing to market the property on behalf of the seller, a limited liability company.  The buyer, a limited liability company, was secured and represented by Meoli and Donaldson.

Benjamin Mallah who was the seller of Jasmine Homes which is a 120-unit, garden-style community located at 3215 Baird Avenue in Lakeland, Florida. Situated on an approximately 7.10 acre site, Jasmine Homes is comprised of 20 two-story residential buildings and one, two-story building, which serves as a clubhouse and leasing office.

The unit mix offers two spacious, open floorplans consisting of 28 one-bedroom/one-bathroom units with 725 rentable square feet and 92 two-bedroom/one-bathroom units with 864 rentable square feet.

Amenities at Jasmine Homes include a sparkling swimming pool with a spacious sundeck and complimentary Wi-Fi, dog park, new playground, racquetball court, on-site laundry facilities, state-of-the-art fitness center, business center and media room.

“Located in a sought after area in Lakeland, Jasmine Homes is surrounded by new developments and easy access to Interstate 4, which allows for a quick commute to several destinations between the two major area metros, Tampa and Orlando,” says Meoli.

“Population growth and organic rental growth continues to climb within the Interstate 4 corridor making Jasmine Homes a well-positioned property for a long term investment,” add Donaldson.

The 176-room Hawthorn Suites by Wyndham Orlando now is owned by Largo-based Equity Management Partners, the same firm that acquired the I-Drive Four Points by Sheraton Orlando Studio City in January. And the new owners plan to invest millions into new renovations.

The hotel was bought in an auction on Oct. 6 for $9.25 million after two days on bid — the hotel’s owner was Miami Beach-based LNR Partners LLC. The hotel, at 7975 Canada Ave. across the street from the future Skyplex project, is an extended-stay property that boasts in-room kitchens and separate living areas and bedrooms.

Buying the hotel was another strategic asset grab along the blossoming International Drive corridor, which is seeing investments from Universal Orlando Resort and the Skyplex project, said Ben Mallah, principal and founder of Equity Management Partners. “We are investing in that area. Universal has all kinds of goals for that area and that helped make the property unique to us,” he told Orlando Business Journal.

Mallah said the sale has not closed officially yet, but that is expected to happen within the next 60 days. When that happens, he said he will begin a $2 million aesthetic renovation of the property, upgrading the paint, landscape and amenities on property.

This is another renovation project his company will take on as it also invested $4 million in upgrades to the Four Points Sheraton hotel earlier this year that included many of the same changes he intends for the Hawthorn Suites.

Auction brochures for the Hawthorn Suites show it has a 69.61 percent occupancy, which is fairly good for I-Drive hotels. Most properties like to be in the 70s to low 80s in occupancy as it allows them to maintain a normal flow of sales, but with the room to adjust room rates to increase profits.

The property was represented by Paul Sexton and Scott Stephens of HREC Investment Advisors in Orlando.

An affiliate of Largo-based Equity Management Partners (EMP) paid a recorded $21 million on Tuesday for the 308-key Courtyard Orlando Lake Buena Vista at Vista Centre, with up to $3 million planned for renovations over the next two years, the company’s founder told GrowthSpotter.

Located at 8501 Palm Parkway less than a mile from the Hotel Plaza Boulevard entrance to Walt Disney World, the 13.68-acre property includes a three-story hotel built in 1989.

“The property has some value-add potential, and we plan on coming in there with a rehab for the property, with PIP (Property Improvement Plan) requirements from Marriott including interior cosmetics, furniture, television upgrades, expanding the gym and new technology,” said Ben Mallah, an owner of hotels and apartment properties throughout Florida.

Owner of I-Drive Four Points hotel plans parking expansion, potential retail pad
Owner of I-Drive Four Points hotel plans parking expansion, potential retail pad
This is EMP’s third hotel purchase in Orlando’s tourism corridor within the past year. Mallah’s company serves as its own property manager, and is also currently rehabbing the Four Points by Sheraton Orlando Studio City on N. International Drive it bought in January 2016, and the Hawthorn Suites by Wyndham Orlando International Drive, which he won at auction last October and purchased in early December for $9.25 million.

“We sold a lot of property in 2016, so we’re definitely satisfying our 1031 needs,” Mallah said. “We probably have another $25 million to place in new assets. There’s a senior housing property we plan to buy in Clearwater, we just sold a hotel in Boca Raton, and we’re selling a Clarion Inn in Fort Lauderdale that may close in the next two months.”

Mallah said he currently has no other properties under contract in Greater Orlando, but “we’re out looking every day.”

The seller was Florida/Vista Ltd., an investment vehicle managed by Quantum Capital Partners out of Tampa, with investment stakes by Ocean Properties Hotels Resorts & Affiliates and members of the Walsh family that founded the company. It previously paid $3.625 million for the land in 1987.

The property was listed by HFF in Orlando.

Written by Bob Moser
GrowthSpotter

Have a tip about Central Florida development? Contact me at bmoser@growthspotter.com, (407) 420-5685 or @bobmoser333. Follow GrowthSpotter on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Copyright © 2017, GrowthSpotter

Ben Mallah, principal and founder of Largo-based Equity Management Partner, is building a portfolio of hotels in Orlando — and he has his sights set on other forms of real estate, as well. His latest acquisition, the 308-room Courtyard Orlando Lake Buena Vista at Vista Centre at 8501 Palm Parkway for $21 million, closed on Feb. 2 and adds to two other hotels his firm owns on International Drive. Florida/Vista Ltd. and related partnership entities were the hotel sellers. Mallah told Orlando Business Journal he plans to invest $3 million in renovations at the Courtyard hotel in aesthetic and infrastructure improvements that are meant to bring it up to date. “I’m bringing up to more of today’s standards. It’s in a good area with close connections to Disney, but it is just a older property that needs some sprucing up to compete with today’s market,” he said. The Courtyard’s renovation will join Mallah’s renovations of the 301-room Four Points by Sheraton Orlando International Drive(a $4 million renovation) and the 176-room Hawthorn Suites by Wyndham Orlando(a $2 million renovation). He said he plans to finish all the renovations by this year. He said those two renovations are still ongoing, but the Four Points work has slowed down due to last year’s merger of Marriott International and Starwood Hotels & Resorts. “We are trying to get through that transition as Marriott has a different way of doing things,” he added. Mallah said he doesn’t have any plans to buy any more hotels as owning and renovating three hotels has him busy. However, he said multifamily and retail opportunities are now grabbing his attention. “We like multifamily anywhere as long as it makes sense. But the market is so high right now for that segment — prices are high and there’s not a lot of cushion” between purchasing and operating costs and what’s made back on properties. In addition, he said the Four Points property may be in line for a unique retail component for a 5,000- square-foot elaborate fast-food restaurant that resembles the new McDonald’s build on the corner of I-Drive and Sand Lake Road. “We are looking to do retail on the corner there. I have some ideas, but I have to see the demand. For example, we may look at something similar to the [I-Drive] McDonald’s that has food below and a big playground for kids on thesecond floor. Something like that would be nice,” he said. In addition, he said he may also break up the 5,000-square-foot plan into five, 1,000-square-foot parcels that could be used to accommodate smaller tenants. The Orlando hotel market has heated up each year thanks to increased visitation and a continued investment by local attractions and theme parks. The market is expected to continue to grow as long as visitation numbers remain strong.

Richard Bilbao

Reporter Orlando Business Journal

MANATEE COUNTY — Companies affiliated with a New York City-based real estate lender paid $13.6 million for two apartment complexes here.

The 168-unit Oaks at Ellenton apartments sold last month for $9.5 million, while the 64-unit Elm Lake Apartments fetched $4.15 million, according to county records.

The buyers are part of Harmony Housing, a nonprofit that says it provides affordable rental housing. The company is separate from but directed by Robert Barolak, who is co-chief operating officer at Greystone, a property lender/adviser in New York.

Oaks at Ellenton, at 1651 36th Ave. E., was built in 1996 and sits on 18 acres.

Elm Lake, at 6318 14th St. E., near the intersection of 63rd Avenue East and 301 Boulevard East, opened in 1983 and includes 4.6 acres, property records show.

Both complexes were sold by companies managed by Benjamin Mallah of Largo. He paid $6.6 million for Oaks at Ellenton and $2.5 million for Elm Lake, both in 2015.

The new owner financed the purchases by extending a larger master credit agreement involving other properties with KeyBank NA.

Last year, a Harmony Housing company paid $12.25 million for the 180-unit Centre Court Apartments in Bradenton.