A South Florida private equity fund has paid $277 per square foot for 101 units in the Related Group’s Harbour House oceanfront condominium conversion in wealthy enclave of Bal Harbour, Fla.

A Florida entity called HH Condominium Investments LLC, with Thomas F. Daly as president and former Miami Beach City Manager Christina M. Cuervo as the registered agent, paid $27 million for an average of $268,000 per unit in the 16-story, Y-shaped tower, according to the South Florida Business Journal.

A year earlier in 2007, a Florida entity called HH Condo Holdings LLC, with Christina M. Cuervo as the registered agent and a member, purchased seven units in the Harbour House for $4.1 million, or $588,000 per residence, according to records from Miami-Dade County and the state of Florida.

The seller was TRG-Harbour House Ltd with Jorge M. Perez of The Related Group as president, according to the government records.

The Harbour House transaction is the third bulk deal to close since December, with the other two multiple unit sales occurring in Downtown Miami and Downtown West Palm Beach.

"Given that three bulk deals have occurred in the last month, we would venture to say the long anticipated bulk buying phase of the real estate cycle is finally upon us," said Peter Zalewski, a principal with the Bal Harbour, Fl-based consultancy Condo Vultures® LLC. "The most interesting aspect of all of these deals thus far is that the private equity groups, not the hedge funds and pension funds, are the buyers of the product at deep discounts. We could envision a scenario sometime in the future where the private equity groups will be selling to the hedge funds."

HH Condominium Investments purchased 97,573 square feet, or 22 percent, of the 434,781 square feet of residential saleable space in the 451-unit tower, according to Miami-Dade County records.

To complete the deal, HH Condominium Investment obtained a $7.3 million mortgage on the units from the seller, according to Miami-Dade County records.

TRG-Harbour House originally purchased the 1960s Harbour House apartment complex for $125 million in December 2004 using a $101 million loan from Germany's Landesbank Hessen Thuringen Girozentrale, according to Miami-Dade County records.

In September 2005, TRG-Harbour House obtained an additional $48 million loan to undertake a complete renovation of the tower, which included replacing all of the windows and sliding glass doors. An additional $24 million in financing was also provided to TRG-Harbour House in 2006, according to Miami-Dade County records.