Ortsac buys Pembroke Pines multifamily at discount for $53M

Ortsac Capital Group bought a 206-unit apartment complex in Pembroke Pines for $52.5 million, marking a slight discount from its purchase price six years ago.

The deal at a 5.6 percent discount comes amid higher interest rates and South Florida’s multifamily market slowdown compared to the post-pandemic boom.

Ortsac, led by married couple Bobby and Sofia Castro, bought the Ventura Pointe property at 7850 Pasadena Boulevard from Dallas-based Lloyd Jones, according to records and real estate database Vizzda. The price breaks down to $254,854 per apartment.

The buyer assumed the seller’s existing $38.6 million loan from MetLife Real Estate Lending and refinanced it as a Fannie Mae loan, bumping up the total $45 million.

Completed in 2018 on nearly 10 acres, the complex consists of two five-story buildings and two four-story buildings, Vizzda records show. Palm Beach Gardens-based Eastwind Development built Ventura Pointe.

Lloyd Jones, led by Christopher Finlay, paid $55.6 million for Ventura Pointe in 2019, records show.

The firm, a multifamily and senior housing investor, has developed, owned and managed about $1.2 billion in multifamily properties since 1990, according to its website.

Fort Lauderdale-based Ortsac, a private family office also led by the Castro couple’s children and grandchildren, has a portfolio of more than $700 million of multifamily assets under management and investments in commercial real estate, its website says. Bobby, who describes himself as a self-made entrepreneur, and Sofia Castro founded and owned Bankers Healthcare Group, which they sold. They also founded and lead Stack and Rack, a three-day multifamily investment bootcamp, according to the Castros’ LinkedIns and Bobby’s website.

In 2021, Ortsac sold the 368-unit Lakeview Flats apartment complex at 8800 Northwest 78th Court and 8900 Northwest 77th Court in Tamarac for $69 million. That same year, it sold the 368-unit Golfview Flats apartment complex at 8445 Springtree Drive in Sunrise for $15 million.

South Florida’s multifamily market boomed in the years after the pandemic’s onset due to an influx of out-of-staters, creating unprecedented demand and record rent growth.

But after developers seized on the bonanza with a flurry of new projects, the region experienced a record 18,600 completions last year just as the pipeline of new residents slowed. This led to slower lease-ups and a drop in rents, with Realtor.com showing the median asking rent in the tri-county region decreased 3 percent in October, year-over-year.

Although the Federal Reserve cut the benchmark rate four times this year and last, it had imposed 11 aggressive increases in 2022 and 2023. As a result, some landlords are struggling to refinance maturing loans or meet debt obligations on floating-rate debt. Some lenders retrenched from issuing new loans while they worked out extensions and forbearance agreements with existing borrowers.

Discounted multifamily deals have popped up in South Florida.

In September, Waterton Residential sold the 427-unit Solena West Miami complex at 2001 and 2101 Ludlam Road/Southwest 67th Avenue in West Miami for $111 million, marking a 4.7 percent discount from its previous $116.4 million price. Waterton had bought the two-building complex in two deals in 2016 and 2017.

Last year, Rreef Property Trust sold the 368-unit Marela complex at 250 Northwest 130th Avenue in Pembroke Pines for $110 million, or 9 percent less than the firm had paid in 2021.

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