Morgan Group paid $12 million for a waterfront Deerfield Beach development site, four years after an initial $16 million deal fizzled for the same property.
An affiliate of Morgan, a Houston-based multifamily development firm led by Phillip Morgan, acquired four parcels totaling 8.4 acres at 412 to 450 North River Drive, 414 to 480 Northeast First Avenue, 409 North River Avenue and 240 Northeast Fifth Street, records show.
Morgan is planning Vista Clara, a six-story project with 320 apartments, Deerfield Beach city records show.
Tony Arellano and Devlin Marinoff with Dwntwn Realty Advisors brokered the deal. The assemblage is along the Intracoastal Waterway in Deerfield Beach.
An affiliate of Pompano Beach-based Partridge Equity Group sold the site at a nearly $2 million discount off its purchase price. Partridge paid a combined $13.8 million for the assemblage between 2018 and 2020, records show.
In 2021, Morgan was under contract to purchase the site for $16 million, but market conditions upended the deal, Marinoff told The Real Deal. Issues with the deed took up to two years to resolve, he added.
“By that point the market had changed completely, and interest rates rose to 7 percent,” Marinoff said. “It was hard to raise equity for multifamily and underwrite the purchase at $16 million.”
Four years later, Dwntwn was able to renegotiate the price down to get a deal done, Marinoff said. “It’s a lesson in perseverance for all sides,” he said. “Everyone hung in there through some tough times.”
Morgan owns and manages a portfolio of more than 15,000 apartments across the U.S., including in Texas, California, Arizona, Colorado, and Florida, according to the company’s website. In January, Morgan broke ground on Caroline at Sunrise, a planned low-rise and townhome rental community with 452 units in Sunrise.
Morgan is co-developing Caroline at Sunrise with a group of investors based in Aventura and Hallandale Beach that paid a combined $13 million for the 21-acre site.
