An apartment community born in the middle of a housing bubble off a road not far from where the “Edward Scissorhands” castle once stood, has a new owner.
A subsidiary of Beachwold Residential, in New York City, has purchased the nearly 200-unit Sweetwater Apartments in Pasco’s Happy Hill area for $12 million.
It’s only the second owner for the complex, which was built in 2006, and multiple suitors had lined up to buy it.
“There’s definitely a lot of competition now for properties like this,” said Gideon Friedman, a Beachwold managing member. “There were a number of people who were bidding on Sweetwater, but we were able to move quickly.”
It’s the third property owned by Beachwold on Florida’s Gulf coast, Friedman said, joining two other properties in Bradenton and Venice. But it most likely won’t be the last.
The northern part of the region — especially Pasco County — has piqued the interest of Beachwold, a company that owns various apartment communities around the country. Beachwold sees the area’s rapid population expansion outpacing available housing.
“Dade City is an area where there is going to be some nice growth,” Friedman said. “There have been a few companies that have relocated there in the past year, and it’s just a mile or so from Saint Leo University, so it has a nice good stable base of people we can draw from.”
The focus will be on students wanting to live close to Saint Leo, but also senior citizens as well. Friedman admits this is a bit of an unorthodox mix, since the demands of these two age groups are completely different. But then again, Saint Leo typically attracts students that are a little more low-key.
“It’s not like this would be a party situation for these students,” Friedman said. “The students who would live there would, for the most part, because they are looking for more space, and want something that is a little quieter than if they had moved in on-campus. They are looking for something more stable and mature than what they would find in dorms, and that matches up with what older residents are looking for as well.”
Beachwold plans to upgrade furniture in the community’s clubhouse, and add a business center that would include Wi-Fi and computer work areas.
The community is almost completely rented out, Friedman said, despite the fact that signs attracting new residents welcome visitors as they enter through the front gate. And as population continues to push north, the value of the units at Sweetwater will become even stronger.
Real Data Apartment Market Research, which studies rental trends in various areas including this one, agrees. In its most recent report, the Tampa Bay market is just meeting apartment rental demand for the first time since the beginning of 2010. And while 7,000 new units are under construction in the region, apartment vacancies are sliding fast, pushing rental prices up.
Friedman wouldn’t say where exactly his company would look next in Florida to buy more apartments, but it does look like they’re staying in Pasco County for the time being.
“We’ve seen a lot of growth in Zephyrhills and New Tampa, and we’re going to be looking out in that direction,” Friedman said. “There have been some new properties coming to the market, and some of them have things we’re looking for, so we’re probably not done quite yet.”
Sweetwater is located at 12730 Janke Road, less than two miles from Saint Leo University, and four miles southwest of downtown Dade City.
