An eighteen acre parcel of land in Palm Beach County, approved for 169 townhouses, was sold on September 18th for $2,070,000.
The Buyer was Morguard Coral Lakes LLC, which is managed by Morguard Management Company Inc. of Kenner, Louisiana.
Morguard Management is a division of publicly-traded Canadian investor Morguard (TSX:MRG), which owns and manages more than 54 million square feet of commercial real estate and more than 12,600 residential units throughout Canada and the United States.
The seller, FCB Palm Beach Holdings LLC, an affiliate of Florida Community Bank, foreclosed and obtained title to the property on May 23, 2012.
The site, which is located at 4411 South Congress Avenue, Lake Worth, is west of Palm Beach State College and just north of the JFK Medical Center. The development referred to as Coral Lakes Apartments, was approved in 2007 for 169 multifamily residential townhouses.
According to Stigliano, who recently joined Scott Brenner’s company, Brenner Real Estate Group as Senior Vice President, “Scott had a relationship with Florida Community Bank through the bank’s counsel and I had a relationship with Morguard’s chairman Rai Sahi.” Coincidentally, Morguard owns Emerald Lakes, the 300 unit apartment complex that backs up to the bank’s vacant parcel of land.”
“As I was conducting a site visit, I realize the proximity of the Morguard’s apartments to the land and immediately called Mr. Sahi”, said Stigliano. The apartments which were purchased in July 2008, were experience some problems with vagrants, litter and vandalism from the homeless that were living on the vacant land. “As soon as I mentioned to Morguard that the land was available for sale, they immediately submitted a Letter of Intent. Morguard saw this purchase as a way to secure their property, enhance security and in time, provide an opportunity to expand the apartment complex.”
Stigliano said, “The transaction came together very quickly and closed 30 days after the contract was signed.”
Morguard has been on a South Florida buying spree. Besides the 18 acre land purchase, Morguard purchased the 408 unit Woodbine Apartments in Riviera Beach for $42.1 million on August 8th , and on August 31, purchased the 340 unit Blue Isles apartments in Margate, FL for $40 million.
