OC Developer Buys Foreclosed Condo Site for $15M

PASADENA, CA-Developer City Ventures of Newport Beach has acquired a foreclosed development site approved for 70 luxury condominium units on a portion of the former Ambassador West College campus for $15 million. Jim Fisher, a principal with Lee & Associates-LA North/Ventura Inc., says that the transaction includes a development site approved for 70 luxury condominium units spaced across four parcels on the campus at 300 West Green St.; 20 apartment units at 164-182 South Orange Grove Blvd.; Grove Manor, a seven-unit unit apartment building at 232 South Orange Grove Blvd.; and the approximately 9,000-square-foot Terrace Villa mansion.

“This was a very complex sale because of the different property types involved,” says Fisher, who represented the seller along with Lee principal Craig Stevens and senior associate Mike Smith of the Lee Multi-Housing Investments Group team. The seller was a New York hedge fund that had taken over the properties through foreclosure.

Fisher explains that the buyer needed to be one that could deliver on the development plans that were approved by the city of Pasadena, “yet also be willing to take on ownership of 27 luxury apartment units, and the Terrace Villa mansion which is in need of much repair.” Another key element to the sale was taking on the title and responsibilities of “Master Developer” which runs with the development portion of the sale.