Illinois-based Heart Partners LLC purchased three Southwest Florida properties last month from The Park Apartments of Southwest Florida and Monroe Management Company of Southwest Florida in a sale totaling $12.9 million.
The three properties are located at Colony Corporate Center North, 24201/24211 Walden Center Drive in Estero, Bay Crossings Shopping Center, 26251 S. Tamiami Trail, in Bonita Springs and The Plaza at The Galleria, 9180 Galleria Court, in North Naples. Matt Stepan, Andrew DeSalvo and Jeffrey Clapper of Premier Commercial Inc. represented the buyer, and Biagio Bernardo of Lee & Associates represented the seller.
Heart Partners LLC, which declined comment, bought the properties as an investment and believes each property is a well-located asset, each having a strong mix of tenants, Stepan said. Of the combined 28 units on the three properties, four are vacant with the buyer looking to lease them. Some of the tenants include Toll Brothers, Lake Michigan Credit Union and Edward Jones, as well as multiple local businesses.
“The sale was an attractive opportunity for the buyer with many of the leases being at or below market rate,” Stepan said.
Suggesting quality investments are difficult to find in the current market, Stepan said this 1031 exchange, which allows the buyer to avoid paying capital gains taxes when it sells an investment property and reinvests the proceeds from the sale within certain time limits in a property or properties of like kind and equal or greater value, was a very safe investment due to its quality and rate of return.
All three properties last sold in 2006, with the 22,000-square-foot Corporate Center North property selling for $5.75 million, the 33,000-square-foot Bay Crossings Shopping Center for $7.75 million and the 13,000-square-foot Plaza at The Galleria for $3.3 million, which amounts to a nearly $4 million loss for the sellers. When the companies bought the properties, the market was about at its peak before it declined in 2009. The sellers decided to move on from their investment and make the $12.9 million sale, Bernardo said.
