From left to right: Tal Peri from Union Investment Real Estate and Raimundo Onetto from Alta Developers (Union Investment Real Estate, Alta Developers)
Germany Union Investment has billions of dollars in assets worldwide, but when it came time to make its first American multi-family piece, it chose apartments in downtown Fort Lauderdale’s Flagler Village.
The Hamburg-based investment manager, through its real estate division, bought EON Squared for $226.5 million, according to the buyer’s release. The 12-story complex spans a full block between Northeast Seventh and Sixth streets and east of Northeast Fifth Avenue.
Vendor Alta Developers completed construction of the 206-unit South Towers at 421 Northeast Sixth Street in 2019 and completed the 270-unit North Towers at 444 Northeast Seventh Street this summer. The north and south towers each have two buildings that share a podium.
The entire resort spans 3.7 acres, according to property records.
Hunter still led the Walker & Dunlop team that brokered the deal. The price works out to $475,840 per unit.
Miami-based Raimundo Onetto’s Alta developed the 430,500 square foot EON with 2 acres of indoor and outdoor amenities, according to Alta’s release. Facilities include five gyms, two swimming pools, five game rooms, coworking spaces, a pet spa, and retail on the ground floor.
Units range from studios to three-bedroom apartments, with monthly rents ranging from $1,899 to $4,182, according to Apartments.com.
EON Squared is 93% leased, according to Tal Peri, who leads Union Investment Real Estate’s US East Coast and Latin America.
Union Investment places the buildings in two different funds on behalf of its investors. The south towers will be in the UniImmo: Global fund, and the north towers in UniImmo: Europa, Peri said. Open-end funds let investors in or out as long as they give a year’s notice. By comparison, a closed-end fund has a specific holding period for real estate and investors, he said.
Union Investment, a subsidiary of German bank DZ, has about $482.7 billion in assets under management, including $55.4 billion in real estate, according to Peri.
Eon Squared’s location in the trendy village of Flagler and its quick rental played a role in the decision to invest, he said. Old, dilapidated warehouses in the area have been converted into businesses such as yoga studios and cafes, and new apartment buildings have sprung up.
“The second building was delivered this summer and in four months it managed to be over 90% let,” he said. “At 270 units, that means a few moves a day.”
The South Florida multifamily market reaped the rewards of strong demand, particularly from newcomers from other states drawn in part by the region’s opening up amid the pandemic.
In turn, rents have soared at explosive rates. Five of the top 10 U.S. cities that saw the strongest rent growth in 2021 were in Florida, according to a report by Zumper. That includes Miami, where rents have soared 38% this year.
Fort Lauderdale was not among the top five cities, but still showed a significant increase. The median rent for a one-bedroom apartment in December was $2,020 per month, the 10th highest rate, according to Zumper.
This triggered a flurry of investment activity. The EON deal ranks as the fifth largest multi-family sale of 2021.
It ranks after Cortland’s $230 million purchase of the new 465-unit apartment community in the Uptown Boca development. The sixth largest deal was AIR Communities’ $223 million purchase of the 7th Complex Downtown in Pembroke Pines.
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