Revenge of the suburbs

Apartment sales dominated commercial real estate transactions along the Gulf Coast in 2016 as investors scrambled to capitalize on the region's rising rental rates and job and population growth.

Of the top 15 transactions in the Gulf Coast's three submarkets — Tampa Bay, Sarasota/Manatee and the three Southwest Florida counties of Charlotte, Lee and Collier — over the past year ranked by price, six involved sprawling multifamily projects in suburban locations.

In Sarasota and Manatee counties and Southwest Florida, apartment sales accounted for the majority of each region's commercial real estate superlatives.
Combined, investors such as TGM Associates of New York, Passco Cos. LLC of Irvine, Calif., and Starwood Capital Group of Greenwich, Conn., among others, plowed more than $300 million into acquiring the ParkCrest Landing, Tuscany, Gulfstream Isles and other complexes.