An HFF team arranged the $59 million sale of a garden-style apartment complex in suburban Broward County in a healthy multifamily market.

Bar Invest Group Inc., a Miami-based real estate owner and operator, bought Sunny Lake Apartments from Turner Impact Capital LLC, a Santa Monica, California-based investment company.

Sunny Lake Apartments, previously called The Glen at Lauderhill, comprises about 26 buildings with 405 units on 26.5 acres at 2360 NW 56th Ave. west of Florida's Turnpike between Sunrise and Oakland Park boulevards.

This is at least the third Broward County apartment complex bought by Bar Invest in the last three years, according to the company's website. The company has joined others attracted to the market by healthy demand from tenants, high occupancy rates and value-add opportunities.

HFF has been catering to this market.

“We have been very active in Broward over the past year or so doing a lot of suburban, garden-style apartment sales. This was really one in a string of transactions that we recently closed in suburban Broward, so that's sort of Lauderdale and Lauderhill,” said HFF director Simon Banke. “I think it's just an area and a market that is seeing a ton of investor interest. This transaction sort of supports that.”

Banke worked with managing director Jaret Turkell and senior director Maurice Habif, all based in Miami, to close the deal May 9. They represented seller Turner Impact.

Overall, investors have had a strong interest in South Florida multifamily properties. Last year boasted 265 apartment deals totaling $3.9 billion, the third highest ever for the region, according to a Cushman & Wakefield report issued in March. Broward had 82 transactions worth $1.5 billion, or 38 percent of the total dollar value.

Clearly, investor interest is prompted by the increased demand from tenants. That demand results from population growth and potential home buyers being priced out of the market as prices rise.

And despite all the hype about urban cores with a live-work-play lifestyle, the suburban market is doing well.

“I think what you are seeing is development returns are compressing and cap rates are very tight on the urban-core assets. So you have investors that are chasing yield and are trying to buy a return that is higher than what you can buy at the urban core,” Banke said. “For that reason, they are chasing these suburban assets.”

Tenant demand in suburban markets is strong as well.

In the Lauderhill-Oakland Park submarket, the vacancy rate was 4.5%, less than all other submarkets in the county except Pompano Beach-Deerfield Beach where the rate was 4.4%.

At the time of sale, Sunny Lake had a 3% vacancy rate.

Banke added another reason for the high occupancy at Sunny Lake and overall in suburban Broward.

“If you just look at the rental rates, they represent a real discount to what you would be paying in downtown Fort Lauderdale. There are a lot of reasons that folks want to live here. That value proposition is definitely one of them,” he said.

Sunny Lake offers one-, two- and three-bedroom units ranging from 719 to 1,129 square feet.

Rents range from $1,200 to $1,590, according to the property's website.

That's less than the average 2018 asking rent of $1,672 in Fort Lauderdale.

Sunny Lake amenities include a pool, clubhouse, gym, tennis court, dog park, playground and coffee bar.

Bar Invest's previous Broward acquisitions were the $37 million purchase of the Coconut Creek Apartments at 3621 W. Hillsboro Blvd. in 2017 and the $44.1 million purchase of the Serramar Apartments at 6701 W. Oakland Park Blvd. in Fort Lauderdale in 2016.

The company's existing holdings in the area made it the appropriate buyer.

“We sort of looked to them as the logical buyer that understood the neighborhood and understood the story,” Banke said. “It was really pairing up our seller here with the correct buyer.”

He and his HFF team members marketed the property for two months and gave about 30 tours, although many more were interested, Banke said.

Turner Impact bought the Sunny Lake apartments in August 2015 for $44.75 million, according to the Broward County property appraiser's office. That represents a 32 percent gain in under four years. The transaction breaks down to $145,679 per unit.

The company's social impact focus is to help struggling communities with issues such as housing and education. Its initiatives include a charter school fund and the Turner Multifamily Impact Fund, which is used to purchase multifamily communities and provide services to residents.

Turner Impact held workshops at the Sunny Lake clubhouse on topics including resume writing and health, according to Banke. This was Turner Impact's only South Florida asset.

“Suburban spaces are incredibly active,” he said. “It's something we are very focused on, and it's something we are probably going to continue to focus on.”

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