Category Five Real Estate added a pair of garden-style apartment complexes to the firm’s burgeoning South Florida portfolio of older multifamily properties, The Real Deal has learned.
In separate deals, the Aventura-based firm paid $29 million for Blue Lake Apartments at 1205 Northwest 103rd Lane, and $18 million for Lake Shore Presidential Apartments at 1260 Northwest 95th Street, Category Five principal Leon Peisach told TRD. Peisach leads Category Five with his brother, Mike Peisach.
“Our bread and butter are Class C multifamily projects,” Peisach said. “We do a light to medium value-add such as replacing the roofs and putting in new vinyl floors, granite countertops, stainless steel appliances, etc.”
Once renovations are completed at its recently acquired properties, Category Five can raise the rents by about 10 percent from the current average of $1,800 a month, Peisach said. The complexes are in unincorporated northwest Miami-Dade, bordering Miami Shores and North Miami.
Category Five acquired Blue Lake Apartments, a complex of four one-story buildings with 106 units completed 1991, in an off-market deal that also involved the buyer assuming an existing loan, Peisach said. The purchase price breaks down to $273,584 per apartment.
The seller, an entity managed by Aventura-based investor Leon Ojalvo, obtained an $11.8 million loan from Bank Leumi when he bought the 6.4-acre site for $15 million in 2021, records show.
A Berkadia team led by Yoav Yuhjtman brokered the deal for Lake Shore Presidential Apartments, a collection of four three-story buildings with a total of 90 units, completed in 1966, Peisach said. The deal breaks down to $200,000 per unit.
The seller, an entity managed by Jacob Shakibpanah in Aventura and FIP Realty Services, also based in Aventura, paid $9.8 million for the complex in 2006, records show.
Established in 2021, Category Five has been on a buying binge since late 2023 when the firm picked up a six-building apartment complex in Deerfield Beach for $24.6 million. The portfolio has grown to 600 units and includes three more properties in Pompano Beach, Launderhill and Miami’s Little River neighborhood, Peisach said.
In addition to renovations, Category Five also installs camera security systems, and in some cases, adds amenities such as children’s playgrounds, Peisach added.
“The assets we just closed on are in a really great area,” he said. “And the bones of the buildings are very good. You essentially have well-built concrete bunkers on lakes, which makes both properties very attractive.”
