Cottonwood bullish on St. Petersburg

Cottonwood Residential officials say they are aware that multifamily values and supply have spiked in recent years in the Tampa and St. Petersburg markets, and that affordability is increasingly becoming an issue, especially for urban renters.

But those dynamics were trumped by St. Petersburg's walkability and its solid economic fundamentals — like office job growth — when buying the former Modera Prime apartment tower for $77.5 million earlier this year.

“The purchase fit with our plan to recycle capital from older projects into dynamic locations like St. Petersburg, which has all the modern amenities and is a very walkable downtown,” says Paul Fredenberg, the company's senior vice president of acquisitions.