Renters face a choice of whether to buy or leave as hundreds of apartments near the Westin Innisbrook Resort convert to condos.
By NORA KOCH
Published June 21, 2004
PALM HARBOR - With about 400 apartments near the Westin Innisbrook Resort about to go condo, renters who thought they knew what the future held are now figuring out where to go.
Crescent Heights, a Miami-based condo developer, bought half of the ParkCrest at Innisbrook apartment complex from CKT Development Co. of Tampa and Nationwide Realty Investments of Columbus, Ohio, for $41.3-million this spring. Now the developer is turning the community into a condominium community renamed Tuscany at Innisbrook.
Tenants have bought about 20 units in one week of sales, regional manager Shay Mayron said. Current renters have been offered discount prices to buy their apartments.
The 396-unit ParkCrest II, a mix of townhomes and garden apartments, was completed at the end of 2002.
Rents range from $700 a month to around $2,000. Crescent Heights has priced the units from the low $100,000s to the high $200,000s, Mayron said. The company bought the units for an average of about $104,293 each.
"They didn't lease well because the rents are high, but they will sell well," said Kelli Novitch, marketing director for the property.
Crescent Heights told residents about the transition a few weeks ago, and sent each dweller a letter with a discounted purchase price for their unit. Residents have 45 days to opt to buy at the preview price or renew their lease for up to nine months.
Crescent Heights owns 25 condominium complexes, including two on Harbour Island in Tampa. Mayron said the ParkCrest property seemed like a smart choice for condominium conversion.
"We sell the lifestyle in condominiums where you have everything," Mayron said. "It's like a resort here, you have buildings and garages - it's a perfect thing for condominiums."
Mayron said the company has no plans to purchase the first phase of ParkCrest apartments.
Sally and Frank Timpanelli, who moved in last December, planned to stay at ParkCrest for a few years while they enjoyed the responsibility-free lifestyle of a renter.
"Then they hit us with this," said Sally, 65, a retired hair stylist. "But I'm glad it did happen now, because when you really think about it, (with) renting you are just renting. . . . Now I will be building up equity."
The couple couldn't afford the $213,000 for their three-bedroom apartment, which rents for $1,360 a month, including a garage.
So they scoured the region for condos and last week bought a yet-to-be-built, three-bedroom condo with a two-car garage on a golf course in Zephyrhills for $135,000.
For Barry Greenwood, the decision hasn't been as easy.
He's lived in a three-bedroom with his father, James, for about two years, paying $1,479 a month in rent.
The $232,000 sales price they were offered seemed "awfully high," said Greenwood, 60.
But, Greenwood said, they can stay in the apartment as renters until April, so there is plenty of time to figure out whether it will be better to stay or go.
