LOS ANGELES-A private West Coast investment firm that purchased the property in 2005 has sold Waterstone Walnut Ridge, a 312-unit multifamily community located on the border of West Covina and Walnut here, for nearly $56 million. GlobeSt.com has learned that the buyer is an L.A-based private investor that has developed and owns more than 12,000 apartment units and 11 million square feet of commercial space throughout California.
The property was marketed by Dean Zander and Vince Norris of Hendricks-Berkadia as a 96-plus%-occupied turnkey property that had already been upgraded to a high standard and still had significant value-add opportunity. The second largest multifamily asset in the City of West Covina, “Walnut” was built in three phases between 1980 and 1983 and consists of 17 two-story buildings situated on more than 15 acres of land.
Amenities at the property include a tennis court, pools, a fitness center, landscaped grounds and a large leasing office in a desirable neighborhood surrounded by homes valued at and above $600,000.
“Since the community had maintained occupancy above 96% consistently since 2007, the investor felt confident their renovation program would yield strong and immediate results,” said Zander in a prepared statement. “They plan common-area upgrades as well as modernization to unit interior finishes.”
The sale represents the largest multifamily transaction in East Los Angeles County for the past 10 months, second only to an April 2012 sale also marketed and sold by Zander and Norris, on which GlobeSt.com previously reported: the 392-unit Windsor at Victoria Heights in nearby Rowland Heights. More than 100 interested parties consisting of a wide variety of investors contacted the brokers regarding Walnut, including value-add renovation experts, pension advisors, syndicators, affordable-housing operators and high-net-worth private owners. The asset garnered more than a dozen offers after 30 days of marketing, and the transaction closed 70 days from the marketing launch in an all-cash transaction.
According to Norris, “investors were all attracted to the excellent demographics of Walnut, which considerably enhanced our ability to represent this deal as a true value-add reposition play through further interior and common-area upgrades.” Hendricks-Berkadia tells GlobeSt.com that this was the buyer's first apartment purchase in Los Angeles County in more than a decade. The buyer plans to renovate the community and keep it in its portfolio as a long-term hold.
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Carrie Rossenfeld
Carrie Rossenfeld is a reporter for the San Diego and Orange County markets on GlobeSt.com and a contributor to Real Estate Forum. She was a trade-magazine and newsletter editor in New York City before moving to Southern California to become a freelance writer and editor for magazines, books and websites. Rossenfeld has written extensively on topics including commercial real estate, running a medical practice, intellectual-property licensing and giftware. She has edited books about profiting from real estate and has ghostwritten a book about starting a home-based business.
