Investor Pays $16.8 Mil in 'Scorned' Area

LOS ANGELES-A private investment group has paid $16.8 million for a 419-unit apartment complex in Baldwin Village, an area that has been scorned by most large institutions for years but now is gaining the attention of smaller investors.

There are 17 buildings inside the development. The buyer is privately held New Hampshire Apartments Inc. and the seller is Thomas Pottmeyer Co., another private investment firm based in LA.

The Baldwin Village development is part of Baldwin Hills, an unusual clump of rolling land and small mountains that was used by LA-area studios to film Western movies in the 1920s and ’30s and then TV shows in the ’50s and ’60s. A large portion of Baldwin Hills can never be developed because of its rugged terrain, variety of wildlife and other factors.