Camden out, New Developer Pursuing Big Apartment Development South of Gandy
Press Release
Pollack Shores Real Estate Group is moving forward with a South of Gandy apartment development after Camden Property Trust walked away from the deal.
Pollack Shores, based in Atlanta, has proposed 288 units on the 12.3-acre site between Lois and Manhattan avenues — just south of the Walmart Supercenter on Gandy Boulevard.
"We were told that Camden elected not to move forward with the deal because they felt they had enough units in the area and were allocating capital to other markets than Tampa," Anthony Everett, Central Florida director for Pollack Shores, wrote in an email.
Camden (NYSE: CPT) had filed plans with the city in October to build 297 apartments on the same site.
The development Pollack Shores has proposed is similar to M North, an apartment complex in Orlando's Millenia area. The Tampa project has been tentatively named M South, and Pollack Shores has filed plans with the city.
"We see the deal as a continuation of our strategy to build more affordable luxury rental housing and to try to stay away from the absolute highest rents in the market," Everett wrote.
Everett is one of several in the real estate industry who have expressed concern about a potential oversupply of luxury apartments. Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik has said Strategic Property Partners, the real estate company he controls with Cascade Investment LLC, is keeping a cautious eye on the luxury apartment market in downtown Tampa.
"Most of our competition is building to the top of the market and we worry that this sector is going to become overbuilt," Everett wrote. "Since 2011, we have started or completed five projects in Central Florida totaling about 1,700 units, which all adhere to this philosophy."
Pollack Shores hopes to begin construction on M South by mid-2016.
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