By Anjali Fluker – Associate Managing Editor, Orlando Business Journal
Oct 22, 2015, 2:53pm EDT
A North Carolina apartment investor this week spent $33.5 million to buy a new Class A apartment complex just miles from some of Seminole County’s major job centers — including the Verizon Communications Inc. accounting hub and Deloitte’s IT operations center.
Greensboro, N.C.-based Bell Partners Inc.’s related Bell Fund V Lake Forest LLC on Oct. 20 paid $160,287 per unit for the 209-unit Integra Village at Lake Forest at 130 Integra Village Trail, Seminole County records showed. The seller was a group made up of Panther Sanford Villages LLC, Blum Rose Houston LLC, Rose Development LLC and Panther Portfolio Investment LLC, county records showed.
Apartment properties, both old and new, continue to attract investors to the Orlando area, as strong fundamentals and a still growing population make for a solid return on investment potential.
The $28 million Integra Village at Lake Forest was developed by Lake Mary-based Integra Land Co. and Woburn, Mass.-based Panther Properties Investment LLC, and work began in late 2013, as previously reported by Orlando Business Journal. The complex was completed earlier this year.
The community, now renamed Bell Lake Forest, will be managed by Bell Partners.
“The acquisition of Bell Lake Forest is on target with our investment strategy of acquiring high quality properties in unique locations that have access to employment centers, retail amenities and transportation arterials,” said Joseph Cannon, senior vice president of investments, in a prepared statement.
This is Bell Partners’ third property purchase in Central Florida in the last few years. It also owns the Bell at Universal, which it bought in mid-2013, and Bell Timacuan in Lake Mary, which it has owned since 2011. It also manages 10 properties, including the ones it owns.
Last year, Bell Partners and New York-based DRA Advisors LLC sold a $1.8 billion portfolio of apartments that included five local properties. Bell Partners continues to manage four of those five apartment complexes.
