Duncan Hillsley drops $18M on bulk condo purchase of South Miami student housingThe Real Deal South Florida

Duncan Hillsley Capital dropped $17.5 million on a bulk purchase of condos geared toward college students in South Miami, two months after it settled a lawsuit with the seller.

Records show a Delaware LLC linked to the investment firm bought 70 units in Valencia, a 301-unit condo building at 6001 Southwest 70th Street. The seller is MHS Valencia LLC.

The buying entity secured a $13 million mortgage from Coral Gables-based Amerant Bank to finance the purchase. The mortgage lists Duncan Hillsley’s Boca Raton headquarters address, and the firm’s co-founder and President Shane Hillsley signed as the mortgagor.

Duncan Hillsley is a real estate investment firm that specializes in underperforming assets, with a portfolio spanning several Florida markets, according to its website.

The price equates to $250,000 per unit.

The seller is registered to MHS Real Estate Capital LLC, a Florida corporation managed by Jupiter-based Saleh H. Alamoudi. He could not immediately be reached for comment.

In December, Duncan Hillsley sued MHS Valencia LLC to close the sale, court records show. The buyer and seller were midway through escrow when Alamoudi’s legal counsel informed the buyer that he would be backing out of the deal due to a “strange situation” and family trouble, according to the complaint. The lawsuit was settled in July.

Valencia’s website bills it as a housing option for University of Miami students, with the choice to rent or buy units. A one-bedroom unit in the building is currently listed for rent at $2,200 per month, and a similar one-bedroom recently sold for $260,000, the website shows.

Alamoudi had bought 80 Valencia units in a bulk purchase in 2011 for $13.5 million, according to records. An affiliate of Miami-based Astor Companies developed the building in 2004, records show.

Duncan Hillsley’s Valencia bulk buy is the firm’s second in South Florida in recent months. In August, Duncan Hillsley paid $25.1 million for 143 condos in a 238-unit building in Sunrise. The price equated to about $176,000 per unit. The firm also secured a loan from Amerant Bank to finance that deal.

The firm’s investment in student housing follows a national trend of developers and private investors taking interest in a long-underserved market. New York City-based Blackstone made a major investment in student housing in April, paying $12.8 billion for American College Communities.

In South Florida, FCP and Mill Creek Residential partnered on a student housing development earlier this summer, dropping $25 million on a nearly 5-acre site near Nova Southeastern University in Davie.

The post Duncan Hillsley drops $18M on bulk condo purchase of South Miami student housing appeared first on The Real Deal South Florida.

Read MoreThe Real Deal South Florida