Longitude 81, a 260-unit apartment adjacent to Hertz Arena in Estero, sold for $78.8 million, an average of about $303,000 per apartment.
The apartment complex off Everblades Parkway at the intersection with Ben Hill Griffin Parkway measures 250,000 square feet, with 11 two-story residential buildings and a clubhouse on just less than 18 acres.
Built in 2016, it is 98% leased with average monthly rents of $2,059.
ECI Group purchased Longitude 81 from Passco Companies LLC. The complex previously sold for $54.9 million in April 2017, meaning the value increased by 42% since then.
Jamie May’s brokerage firm JBM brokered the deal as both the listing and selling agent.
“Markets have slowed, but we’ve been pretty consistent,” said May, who is based in Naples. “We’re selling maybe two a month instead of five a month. Values are down, because capital is down slightly. But another reason is insurance. Those rates are about triple what they were previously.
“Nonetheless, there was a ton of interest on this one.”
ECI Group, based in Atlanta, is no stranger to investing in Southwest Florida. May previously sold the 198-unit Estero Parc apartment complex and the 273-unit Waterline Bonita Springs complex to ECI Group.
“Those were their first two deals here,” May said. “This was a great fit for them. Now, they’re the largest landlord for multifamily in that sector, between Estero and Bonita Springs. They certainly knew the market.”
Matt Simmons, a property appraiser with Maxwell, Hendry & Simmons, said apartment complex sale prices are starting to stabilize after surging when the state’s population boomed following the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Effectively, this is a great sale,” Simmons said. “But looking at this, if this were a year ago, I suspect the number would have been higher. We’re just in a different environment, definitely for a complex like this.”
To compare, in 2022, JBM brokered the 240-unit Bonita Springs Versol complex for $87.25 million, about $363,542 per unit. Two years prior, JBM brokered the same apartment complex for $70.35 million, at $293,125 per unit.
Although prices per unit are stabilizing, they are still above where they were before the pandemic.
“I suspect rents are up even from a year ago,” Simmons said. “What’s different are interest rates. That’s where a lot of properties, particularly larger, institutional, multi-investment, multifamily—what has happened with rates over the past 18 months has been such a blunt-force impact to the debt markets. Even if the property itself is performing better than a year ago, it costs so much more for the debt component, it’s probably selling a little bit down from where it would have been otherwise.”
