Nuveen Sells Landings at Coconut Creek Apartments for $52.6M

Nuveen has sold the Landings at Coconut Creek, a 268-unit apartment complex at 4854 Fishermans Drive in Broward County, to Miami based Legacy Residential Group for $52.6 million. The deal closes out a nine year hold for the institutional asset manager, which bought the property in 2017 for $45.3 million, a gain of roughly 16 percent over nearly a decade.

Why it matters

The markup is thin by the standards of the last cycle, and that is the real signal. A long hold institutional seller taking a modest gain on a 1986 built, 268 unit asset in Broward points to a Broward apartment market where values have not raced back to pandemic era peaks. For a buyer like Legacy Residential Group, the entry basis of roughly $196,000 a unit on a 242,178 square foot property is a bet that rents and occupancy in the corridor keep the asset cash flowing while the next leg of appreciation plays out.

The numbers

The Landings at Coconut Creek sits on 22 acres and totals 242,178 square feet across 268 units, built in 1986. Nuveen paid $45.3 million for the property in 2017 and sold it for $52.6 million, or about $196,000 per unit. TD Bank wrote a $35.5 million acquisition loan to finance Legacy Residential Group’s purchase. A Nuveen spokesperson said the complex is 94 percent occupied, a healthy figure for a nearly 40 year old asset in South Florida.

What’s next

Legacy Residential Group now holds an older vintage, highly occupied apartment complex with a sizable acquisition loan to service, which typically means a value add push on units and amenities to justify the debt load. Watch for permits or renovation filings at the Fishermans Drive address as the new owner moves to reposition the property, and for whether other long hold institutional landlords in Broward follow Nuveen’s lead and test the sales market at similarly modest markups.