Eastern Atlantic Sells Apartments to Rental Asset Management
A photo illustration of 590 West Flagler Street (Getty, Google Maps)
Rental Asset Management scooped up a Little Havana apartment building with affordable and workforce housing units for $31.1 million.
Rental Asset Management, or RAM, purchased the property at 590 West Flagler Street from the developer, Eastern Atlantic, records show. Construction of the 14-story building is almost complete and pre-leasing is underway, according to a published report.
The buyer took out a $17.4 million loan tied to the property from Coral Gables-based Amerant Bank.
The sale of the 96-unit building breaks down to nearly $324,000 per apartment.
The deal marks RAM’s continued wager on below-market rentals in Miami’s Little Havana. In April, the firm purchased the next-door apartment building at 35 Southwest Sixth Avenue, which also consists of affordable and workforce housing units, for $30.1 million.
The developer and seller of that 13-story building also was Miami-based Eastern Atlantic. Eric Milne is the firm’s president.
At both buildings, 10 percent of the units are reserved for households earning no more than 30 percent of the area’s median income, and another 10 percent for households earning no more than 50 percent of the AMI, according to records. The remaining units in each building are for renters earning no more than 140 percent of the AMI.
RAM, based in Oakland Park, has a portfolio of more than 3,000 apartments in over 50 properties and 23 cities, its website shows. German Guzman and Axel Jordan manage the entities RAM used for the Little Havana property purchases.
South Florida’s booming multifamily market has been defined by skyrocketing rents, leaving tenants priced out of market-rate apartments turning to affordable and workforce housing. This has created an investment appetite for below-market rate multifamily properties.
In Little Havana, the Pérez family’s Related Group wants to build a multifamily project at 450 Southwest Fifth Street and 445 Southwest Sixth Street where all 85 units will be affordable or workforce-priced. The project is planned under Related’s affordable housing arm, Related Urban.
Real estate titan Stephen Ross’ Related Companies also is betting on multifamily. In November, the New York-based firm scooped up the Monterra affordable apartment complex at 2601 Solano Avenue in Cooper City for $55.5 million.
