Ortsac Capital Group has acquired the Ventura Pointe apartment complex in Pembroke Pines for $52.5 million, a price that reflects a 5.6 percent decrease from its last sale six years ago.
The 206-unit property, located at 7850 Pasadena Boulevard, was purchased from Lloyd Jones, a Dallas-based firm led by Christopher Finlay. The transaction equates to about $254,854 per unit. Ortsac assumed the seller’s $38.6 million loan from MetLife Real Estate Lending and refinanced it with Fannie Mae, increasing the total to $45 million.
Ventura Pointe was completed in 2018 on nearly 10 acres and includes two five-story buildings and two four-story buildings. It was developed by Eastwind Development of Palm Beach Gardens.
Lloyd Jones bought the property in 2019 for $55.6 million. Since 1990, Lloyd Jones has developed, owned, and managed approximately $1.2 billion in multifamily properties.
Ortsac Capital Group is based in Fort Lauderdale and operates as a private family office led by Bobby and Sofia Castro along with their children and grandchildren. According to its website, Ortsac manages more than $700 million in multifamily assets and invests in commercial real estate. Bobby Castro describes himself as a self-made entrepreneur; he and Sofia previously founded Bankers Healthcare Group before selling it. They also run Stack and Rack, a three-day multifamily investment bootcamp.
In recent years, Ortsac sold other large apartment complexes: Lakeview Flats in Tamarac for $69 million and Golfview Flats in Sunrise for $15 million.
South Florida’s multifamily market experienced significant growth after the pandemic due to an influx of new residents from other states which drove up demand and rents. However, this trend slowed as developers responded with numerous new projects—leading to record completions last year just as population growth tapered off. This resulted in slower lease-ups and declining rents; data from Realtor.com showed that median asking rent across Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties fell by 3 percent year-over-year in October (https://www.realtor.com/research/october-2024-rent/).
Although the Federal Reserve reduced interest rates four times over the past two years after previously raising them aggressively during 2022–2023 (https://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/openmarket.htm), some landlords have struggled to refinance maturing loans or meet obligations on floating-rate debt as lenders became more cautious.
Discounted sales have become more common among South Florida multifamily properties recently. In September, Waterton Residential sold Solena West Miami—a 427-unit complex—for $111 million at a 4.7 percent discount compared to its previous purchase price (https://therealdeal.com/miami/2024/09/14/waterton-sells-west-miami-apartments-at-discount-as-market-cools/). Last year saw Rreef Property Trust sell Marela Apartments in Pembroke Pines for $110 million—9 percent less than what it paid just two years earlier (https://therealdeal.com/miami/2023/11/20/rreef-property-trust-sells-pembroke-pines-apartments-at-9-discount/).
