Family partnership buys Regency Palms, Oasis

BUYER: SME Apartments LLC, Miami

SELLER: Sovereign Bank via a foreclosure judgment against 4113 Regency Palms LLC

PROPERTY: 4113 E. Linebaugh Ave., Tampa

PRICE: N/A

PREVIOUS PRICE: $4.5 million, August 2005

BUYER: EM Apartments LLC, Miami

SELLER: Sovereign Bank via a foreclosure judgment against 142 Oasis Apartments LLC

PROPERTY: 1503 E. 142nd Ave., Tampa

PRICE: N/A

PREVIOUS PRICE: $2.75 million, November 2006

PLANS, DESCRIPTION: SME Apartments LLC and EM Apartments LLC, led by Tampa's Elvis Ramon, purchased the final judgments of foreclosure and have taken title to the Regency Palms Apartments and Oasis Apartments from Sovereign Bank.

Darron Kattan, Bob Goldfinger and Kevin Kelleher of Franklin Street Partners represented both parties.

The two sale notes had a face value of $6.18 million, but were likely sold for much less. Kattan declined to comment on the sale price. Sovereign Bank decided to sell rather than take the additional costs and liabilities that came with ownership of the property.

The Regency Palms Apartments houses 89 units on Linebaugh Avenue next to Busch Gardens and across the street from Adventure Island Water Park. The 61-unit Oasis is located north of 15th Street between 142nd and 140th avenues near the University of South Florida campus.

“Franklin Street [Partners] has a good relationship with [Sovereign Bank] so they asked us if we had a client that would be interested in the properties,” Kattan says. “We made one phone call....[and] had an offer that night. They accepted the next day.”

Both apartments face high vacancies and the Oasis Apartments also has a number of physical problems, according to Kattan.

The buyer is described as a private family partnership that owns and manages a significant number of rental units in Tampa.