Cortland pays $230M for Boca Raton apartments, marking priciest multifamily sale of year

456-unit complex is 99% leased

The Residences at Uptown Boca with Cortland CEO Steven DeFrancis and the sellers Alexander Rosemurgy and Rick Giles
The Residences at Uptown Boca with Cortland CEO Steven DeFrancis and the sellers Alexander Rosemurgy and Rick Giles

A new apartment community in Boca Raton sold for $230 million, marking the most expensive multifamily sale in South Florida this year.

Giles Capital Group, Rosemurgy Properties, Schmier Property Group and Wheelock Street Capital sold the 456-unit, seven-building development to Atlanta-based Cortland, according to a press release. The Residences at Uptown Boca was completed last year and is 99 percent leased, with just the model unit remaining, a spokesperson said.

The South Florida multifamily market has been on fire, with rents and occupancy rising and a number of institutional deals closing in recent months.

The Uptown Boca sale breaks down to about $504,000 per apartment. Units range from 718 square feet to 1,737 square feet, and from one to four bedrooms. Park Partners Residential manages the garden-style complex.

A Cushman & Wakefield team led by Robert Given and Zach Sackley brokered the deal.

Cortland owns about two dozen multifamily properties in Florida, according to its website.

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The Boca community includes a 24-hour gym and business center, cold storage, theater and lounge, rideshare lounge, dog parks, a soccer field, playground and children’s gaming area, according to the release.

The developers paid $38 million for the 38-acre property, agricultural land on the southwest corner of Glades Road and 95th Avenue South in 2018, and financed construction of the mixed-use development with a $125 million construction loan.

The sellers retained ownership of the 179,000-square-foot retail component of Uptown Boca.

Amazon Fresh is expected to open a 35,000-square-foot store at Uptown Boca. Other tenants include REI, Sloan’s Ice Cream, Chick-Fil-A, BurgerFi, and others.

Recent multifamily sales in South Florida include the $121.3 million trade of a Pembroke Pines complex.

In June, Harbor Group International sold a separate 700-unit apartment complex in Pembroke Pines to Air Communities for nearly $223 million.