BBX Capital expands empire with housing
The empire of a Fort Lauderdale-based real estate investment and timeshare company is making moves in another market: rental apartments.
Fort Lauderdale-based BBX Capital Real Estate, a division of BBX Capital Corp., has purchased 50 percent of the developments of the Boca Raton-based The Altman Cos. for $22.7 million. The 50-year-old Altman Cos. has developed, constructed, acquired and managed thousands of multi-family homes and operated luxury apartment homes and condominiums. The company is best known for its communities rented under the Altis brand.
The purchase means BBX will own half of Altman’s platform for future projects, as well as projects already underway in various stages — everything from investigating the site to buying the land. This includes an eightstory, mid-rise development just south of The University of Tampa called Altis Grand Central. The deal also includes eight rental apartment projects — seven of those throughout Florida, including the 398-unit Altis Boca Raton and the 280-unit Altis Pembroke Gardens in Pembroke Pines that are already completed — and more under construction in Tampa and Lutz, Fla.
“It’s a robust pipeline … of opportunities,” said Seth Wise, president of BBX Capital Real Estate, in a phone interview.
BBX Capital has holdings
in real estate, finance and hospitality, including timeshare company Bluegreen Corp. in Boca Raton, and Hoffman’s Chocolates, which has stores throughout South Florida. In 2016, it announced it was the new franchisee of MOD Pizza. Last year, it acquired the It’Sugar candy retail chain for $57 million. From South Florida to other major Florida metro areas, the company has been involved in repurposing properties into new residential or mixed-use projects in partnerships with developers. Locally, the partners included The Altman Cos. and Codina-Carr.
In Fort Lauderdale, for example, a former BankAtlantic parking lot became the 30-home The Village at Victoria Park. In West Palm Beach, it took one parcel from the “legacy portfolio,” bought another from a bank, and won city permission to increase the building density from four stories to 15. Then the land was sold.
Because BBX was already partnering with Altman, they knew it would be a good fit, Wise said.
Wise said the multi-family sector was another opportunity for BBX to grow.
“It really gives us the ability to deploy capital into apartment deals, which is an asset class we think very highly of,” Wise said. “In good times, they do really well, and in bad times, they hold their own. We’ve been wanting, frankly, a platform in the multi-family space.”
Because BBX now owns half of Altman, the two will be partners in future projects. Wise said in four years BBX is set to gobble up another 40 percent of the company for $9.4 million, leaving founder Joel Altman with 10 percent.
For the Altman company, it’s “an opportunity for his business to have an infinite life,” Wise said. “It’s business as usual for Altman. We’re just joining the party.”