Harbor Group International beefed up its South Florida portfolio with a $109 million purchase of an over 500-unit apartment complex near Zoo Miami.
The deal, which marked a $2 million gain from the property’s 2021 price, comes amid a cooling multifamily investment market in the region amid higher costs, elevated interest rates and pressure on property values.
Norfolk, Virginia-based Harbor Group bought the 505-unit Emerald Palms, at 12315 Southwest 151st Street in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, from Dallas-based The Milestone Group, according to records and real estate database Vizzda. The purchase breaks down to $215,842 per apartment.
The buyer assumed the seller’s $70.2 million Freddie Mac loan.
Completed over decades from 1985 to 2004, Emerald Palms consists of 34 three-story buildings on 28.3 acres, Vizzda records show. It has one-bedroom units spanning over 700 square feet, two-bedroom units from 924 to nearly 1,200 square feet, and three bedrooms in the 1,300-square-foot range.
Milestone, led by Jeffrey L. Goldberg and Robert P. Landin, paid $107 million for the complex in 2021.
The firm is a frequent investor in South Florida multifamily, purchasing the 206-unit Casa Brera complex near Boynton Beach last year for $46.4 million, and the 488-unit Axis Delray Beach in 2024 for $111.6 million.
Led by Jordan E. Slone, Harbor Group is a prolific multifamily investor in South Florida and beyond, continuing to purchase over the past four years amid elevated interest rates and cap rates, and some retrenching bank lenders.
For many of its deals, Harbor assumed sellers’ financings, which often come at lower interest rates than new debt. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae loans also come at better terms than bank debt.
In 2023, Harbor Group paid $75 million for the 288-unit Pine Ridge apartment complex and $105.5 million for the 280-unit Locklyn West Palm.
This year, the firm has been closing on deals part of its planned $562 million purchase of an 11-building portfolio spanning more than 2,400 units across Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia.
Aside from higher interest and cap rates, South Florida multifamily deals and commercial properties have felt the sting this year from dimmer expectations for interest rate reprieve, skyrocketing oil prices and uncertainty over geopolitical conflicts.
In the first quarter, multifamily deal volume totaled nearly $750 million, a 26 percent decrease from the same period last year, and a 16 percent drop from the long-term first quarter average since 2017, according to CoStar Group data.
Leasing experienced an uptick, with new signings finally surpassing new supply this year, prompting some landlords to nix concessions and test whether the market will tolerate rent increases.
Some of the top apartment trades this year include RPM Living and Cantor Fitzgerald Asset Management’s $151.4 million purchase of the 380-unit Biscayne Shores complex near North Miami.
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