Condo-Mapped Asset Trades for Nearly $28M

SAN DIEGO-With multifamily investors continuing to vie over condo-mapped assets across San Diego County, sales prices for these types of apartment properties are ratcheting up at a dizzying pace, as evidenced by the recent sale of the Cumberland apartment complex here for $27.5 million.In the recent transaction, San Diego-based buyer DF 800 LLC has shelled out approximately $190,972 per unit for the property, which it plans to convert into a condominium complex. The buyer has acquired the asset from Cumberland Club Apartments LP (with Gerry Ranglas of R & V Management as general partner), which has sold the complex because it “could get a premium due to the condo map that is in place,” according to Steve Huffman of the San Diego office of Hendricks & Partners. Huffman, along with his Hendricks & Partners colleagues Jules Arthur and Dick Bassett, brokered the transaction. The housing market is so tight in San Diego that apartment owners are attempting to obtain condo maps for the properties that don’t have them and selling off the ones that do, Huffman explains. “There is a tremendous increase in value as a result of the condominium maps,” he tells GlobeSt.com.In the case of the Cumberland transaction, “there were a number of buyers who wanted this (asset) badly,” Huffman says. Investment interest continues to swell, which has led to an increase in the number of condo-mapped properties changing hands. Huffman points out that Hendricks & Partners has recently handled 264 units in San Marcos, 66 units in Santee, 58 units in El Cajon, 60 units in Hillcrest and 144 in San Ysidro, all of which are condo conversion properties. Built in 1985, the Cumberland apartment complex is located in the Mira Mesa area of San Diego. It stands at 8213 Jade Coast Rd., in close proximity to the 5, 805 and 15 freeways. The property is comprised of 18 two-story, wood-frame and stucco buildings that house a total of 144 apartments. The unit mix consists of 40 one-bedroom, one-bath designs encompassing approximately 588 sf each and 104 two-bedroom, two-bath layouts measuring around 907 sf each. Amenities here include a laundry facility, spa, heated swimming pool, private patios and balconies, as well as 166 covered carports and 63 open parking spaces. At the time of sale, average rents at Cumberland ranged from $900 per month for the one-bedroom, one-bath units to $1,200 per month for the two-bedroom, two-bath apartments. There were around five vacant units when the property changed hands, according to Huffman.