Apartment complexes acquired

An Atlanta-based real estate company said Tuesday it has acquired neighboring apartment complexes in West Palm Beach and plans to combine them into a single community.

Cortland Partners said the 396-unit Arium Palm Cove, at 4600 Portofino Way, and the 416-unit Arium at Laguna Lakes, at 4400 Portofino Way, will now be known as Portofino Place. Terms were not disclosed. This is Cortland’s first project in South Florida. The company says it owns nearly 35,000 apartment units in seven states.

“We’ve had our eye on West Palm Beach for some time and feel it’s an attractive submarket to enter,” Steven DeFrancis, Cortland’s founder and CEO, said in a statement.

Cortland announced that the properties will undergo extensive renovations starting next year that include new flooring, countertops and appliances.

Current monthly rents for the one-, two- and threebedroom units range from about $1,100 to $2,000, according to John Builder, Cortland’s director of investments. Cortland likely will raise rents an average of $250 a month per unit after the upgrades, Builder said.

“Every single unit there will be redone,” Builder said. “The interiors will look and feel brand-new.”

The entire project will take about two years and help the communities compete with apartments being built in the area, he said.

The two properties are off Military Trail, near the spring training baseball complex under construction.

Entities controlled by the Atlanta-based Carroll Organization bought the communities in 2015, paying $53.8 million for Arium Palm Cove and $58.1 million for Arium at Laguna Lakes, records show.