Orlando’s multifamily market appears to be heating up after a slow start to the year, as a trio of apartment communities in Celebration, Four Corners, and Horizon West just sold within ten days of each other in separate transactions worth a combined $268 million.
The 300-unit Cortland Colburn apartment complex in Celebration sold to Chicago-based Heitman for $120.5 million in a deal that closed on March 28. The transaction was the largest multifamily deal in the Orlando market since March 2023, when CBRE Investment Management purchased the 455-unit Village at Lake Lily in Maitland for $124.6 million. Creative Village’s UnionWest tower, which has 640 student housing beds, sold in December for $126.5 million. However, the building also features 105,000 square feet of academic and educational space, which added to the overall value of the deal.
Atlanta-based Cortland and Dallas-based Streetlights Residential broke ground on Cortland Colburn in 2021 and opened the property in 2023 in Mattamy Homes‘ Island Village at Celebration community. After purchasing the property, Heitman renamed the complex The Colburn Apartments.
Units in The Colburn Apartments range from one to three bedrooms and 756 to 1,772 square feet. Amenities include a resident European Pantry and tea room, private conference and dining spaces, a lounge with connected outdoor space, a pet wash area and dog park, a playground, a bike storage and repair shop, a co-working area, and a gym with two studios and private training. Additionally, there is a pool deck with entertainment lounges, grilling stations, and an adjacent community room.
The complex consists of nine buildings and also features walking paths surrounding a pair of adjacent ponds. One of the buildings on Celebration Boulevard has 10,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space, with tenants including Scoop Ice Cream, The Village Barber Shop Celebration, and CFS Coffee For The Soul, Celebration.
A second transaction, which closed on March 21, involved the Grand at Westside, located at 3250 Douglas Grand Dr. in Four Corners. Los Angeles-based TruAmerica Multifamily purchased the 336-unit community from Miami Beach-based Starwood Capital for $81 million — a $20 million loss from what Starwood paid the property for in 2022. NYC-based Bluerock previously bought the community for $67.5 million in 2018.
The Grand at Westside opened in 2015 and consists of 14 three-story residential buildings with an average unit size of 1,107 square feet. Amenities include a pool, a playground, a putting green, fire pits, and a clubhouse with a gym, lounge room, and business center.
“The acquisition of Grand at Westside is another example of our ability to buy newer vintage value-add properties at a favorable basis that provide day one value,” said Bob Hart, President and CEO of TruAmerica, in a press release. “This acquisition is reflective of the attractive entry point that the next 12-18 months provides well-capitalized platforms like TruAmerica to expand our portfolio.”
TruAmerica now owns eleven multifamily communities in the Orlando area, primarily in Orange and Seminole Counties. Jubeen Vaghefi, Denny St. Romain, Charles Crapse, Scott Peek, and Alex Kupp of CBRE represented the seller in the deal.
“We are bullish on Orlando’s near-term fundamentals and have already seen strong market performance based on our significant footprint in the metro,” said Matt Ferrari, Head of Acquisitions and co-CIO, of Los Angeles-based TruAmerica. “The purchase of Grand at Westside is reflective of TruAmerica’s broader ability to use our portfolio’s predictive data to identify accretive investment opportunities.”
The third transaction involved the $66.5 million sale of Ascend Waterleigh, located at 9405 Ascend Fls Dr. NYC-based Ashcroft Capital bought the 300-unit complex from DHI Communities in a deal that closed on March 28 and renamed the property Birchstone Waterleigh. The community, which opened in 2023, features a dog park, a pool with cabanas and grilling stations, and a clubhouse with a gym and coworking area. Ted Taylor and Kyle Butler of JLL facilitated the deal.
Ashcroft purchased the adjacent Braxton Waterleigh community from South Carolina-based PassiveInvesting.com last August for $84.93 million and renamed the property Halston Waterleigh. The 354-unit complex opened in 2021 and features a gym with a yoga room and spin room, a heated saltwater pool with lounge chairs and cabanas, BBQ grilling stations, fire pits, and a pet grooming station.
Ashcroft recently purchased Birchstone Waterleigh in Horizon West. Last year, Ashcroft purchased the adjacent Halston Waterleigh community, pictured above. (GrowthSpotter Archives)
The only other large multifamily transaction to take place in the Orlando market so far this year occurred in February when South Carolina-based Greystar purchased the 268-unit Axis West apartment complex from Starwood Capital and renamed the property Avana Parkway. The deal, which closed on February 28, was worth $69 million.
Avana Parkway, located at 6820 Axis W. Cir. near SeaWorld, has a clubhouse with lounge space and a hospitality bar, a pool, a gym, BBQ stations, a dog park, and a playground. Flournoy Partners developed and opened the community in 2017, and sold the property a year later for $62.85 million.
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